House intelligence committee chair Devin Nunes canceled a public hearing on Russian meddling in the election scheduled for Tuesday, saying the time was needed to hear privately from FBI director James Comey and Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency.

But Nunes never scheduled Comey’s and Rogers’ reappearance before the committee – a committee spokesman said Tuesday that Nunes was still trying to set it up – and Democrats now question whether Nunes’ maneuver was intended to kill momentum the committee had built after its first public session March 20.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, questioned Nunes’ motives in canceling the public hearing, which was to have taken testimony from former Obama administration officials.

Among those officials was Sally Yates, the acting attorney general who reportedly warned the White House in January that then national security adviser had been recorded conversing with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Yates certainly would have been asked about that conversation. Trump fired Flynn three weeks later, after Yates’ warning was the subject of a Washington Post news story.

“The American people should have had the benefit of an open hearing,” Schiff said, noting the the initial public hearing brought Comey’s acknowledgment that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between Trump campaign figures and Russia.

The controversy over the canceled public hearing and the unscheduled Comey-Rogers followup session increased demands for Nunes to step down from the House investigation. Democrats appeared unanimous in urging Nunes to recuse himself, a step he said repeatedly Tuesday he was not considering.

Republicans on the committee publicly continued to back him. House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., defended canceling the public session until after Comey and Rogers had testified again, saying “there were more than 100 questions” the two couldn’t answer because of the open nature of the first hearing.

But Schiff pointed out that Nunes has still not rescheduled the testimony from the former Obama administration officials, who in addition to Yates included former CIA director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper. Schiff wondered whether Nunes had canceled the public hearing at the White House’s request to keep Yates from testifying – a claim White House spokesman Sean Spicer denied.

Spicer said that Yates had asked the Justice Department for permission to testify publicly and that it had been granted.