Republican Rep. Doug Collins scoffed at the House Democratic leadership after they didn’t take questions from the media following their announcement of two articles of impeachment into President Trump.
“It’s just amazing,” Collins said. “It is very telling that they all walk offstage and didn’t answer a question. Why would the speaker of the House … you just announced articles of impeachment … you had your five committee chairs … and they wouldn’t take questions? That tells me that they really are not inherently comfortable with what they’re doing.”
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler announced on Tuesday that they would consider two articles of impeachment: one on a charge of abuse of power and another relating to obstruction of Congress.
“It is an impeachable offense for the president to exercise the powers of his public office to obtain an improper personal benefit,” Nadler said.
The impeachment investigation centers on the Trump administration’s relations with Ukraine and a July 25 call between Trump and the president of Ukraine. During the call, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to investigate Joe Biden and his son’s business dealings with a corrupt company in the country.
The call triggered an intelligence community whistleblower’s report, which sparked a slew of subpoenas against the White House and State Department from the Democratically-controlled Congress. The White House has said it does not intend to comply with the impeachment proceedings or document requests.
Instead, they released a transcript of a call which they argued shows there was no “quid pro quo” between the two leaders as Democrats have claimed.
In defending the president, Republicans like Collins said there was nothing improper about the call and that Democrats were looking for any excuse to remove Trump from office.
“They simply want to get the clock and the calendar because they’re so obsessed and fearful that President Trump is going to win against next November,” Collins said.
Democrats warned that would interfere in the 2020 election if they do not impeach.
“The president’s misconduct goes to the heart of whether we can conduct a free and fair election in 2020,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said in closing Tuesday’s press conference.
Reporters attempted to shout questions at the Democrats as they left the announcement. At least one reporter questioned why Democrats did not include any findings in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report in the impeachment articles.
