Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise claimed there is “no guarantee” House Democrats will afford President Trump due process in the impeachment hearings.
House Republicans have been outraged with the current impeachment process as much of it has happened behind closed doors with Republicans unable to call witnesses. The White House has also been denied the ability to have legal counsel present to question witnesses on the president’s behalf.
During a Sunday interview on ABC’s This Week, Scalise lamented the process.
“This is nothing like the Clinton and the Nixon impeachment,” he explained. “Both sides got to call witnesses under Clinton and under Nixon. The president’s legal counsel was in the room able to ask questions to the witnesses.”
Host George Stephanopoulos claimed that Republicans would be granted those abilities when the formal impeachment occurs in the House Judiciary Committee.
Scalise, however, doubted that would happen, saying, “ There’s no guarantee of that.” He claimed the rules agreed to in Thursday’s impeachment vote gave Democrats too much power.
“The resolution they just passed in a very partisan way gives the chairman the full discretion to kick the president’s counsel out of the room and to veto any witnesses that we would call,” he said.
He claimed past impeachments were bipartisan because both sides agreed to the procedural rules.
“Under Clinton and Nixon there was a bipartisan negotiation to at least have fair rules. They don’t want fair rules, they just want to hurt President Trump’s chances to win reelection,” Scalise said.
He added, “It’s all about reversing the results of the 2016 election. There are no high crimes or misdemeanors.”
The House voted to continue the impeachment effort down party lines, with only two Democrats breaking from their party to vote with Republicans against impeachment.
