Devin Nunes doesn’t get it.

House Intelligence Committee Democrats said Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) apologized to them Thursday during a closed-door meeting for his handling of revelations about surveillance that potentially could have been collected about President Trump and his associates during the transition period.

Nunes’s apology was “generic,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, said on CNN, adding that it was “not clear” precisely which actions his apology covered.

Nunes came under heavy fire from Democrats on Wednesday after going first to the press, then to the White House, and then to the press again before consulting with committee colleagues about what he said was fresh intelligence about the president and his campaign aides.

That might sound like no big deal until you remember that the committee is investigating the White House and therefore the committee chairman should not be toddling over there to share new information at all, let alone before sharing it with the rest of the committee. Imagine a committee investigating malfeasance at Speedigo Car Corporation. Imagine the committee chair getting new information and immediately dashing off to Detroit to share it with Speedigo, without consulting the rest of the committee. What would that look like? It would look as if the chair had been bought and paid for, that’s what.

On Thursday, Nunes said it was a “judgment call” to personally brief Trump before speaking with his Intelligence Committee colleagues, who are actively investigating allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections and suspected links between Trump aides and the Kremlin.

But Trump is the subject of investigation.

This is just bonkers. This isn’t a government, it’s a madhouse.

Nunes told reporters that the identities of the individuals in the report were “very clear to me,” and that they were members of the Trump team.

That has sparked charges that if anybody is revealing more than they should, it is Nunes — for potentially telling the public that hidden names in surveillance reports referred to the president and his advisers, something that is likely classified information.

Nunes said the information was classified, but he argued that disclosing the existence of the report and the nature of it did not reveal any classified information.

Nunes’s own staff were not aware of the chairman’s decision to go public and brief the president and were dismayed by his actions, said several individuals familiar with the matter.

Because the chair of the investigating committee isn’t supposed to go blabbing to Speedigo.