The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee declared the public impeachment hearings “a sham” put on by Democrats who have long been seeking to impeach President Trump.
Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a staunch defender of the president, dismissed the impeachment hearings and said that Democrats launched them after failing to prove their claims that then-candidate Trump colluded with the Russians ahead of the 2016 elections.
“But anyone familiar with the Democrats’ scorched-earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is just a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign,” Nunes said.
Nunes said the impeachment hearings would feature witnesses from the U.S. government bureaucracy who disagreed with Trump’s actions — including his decision to fire the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich, who will testify publicly Friday — and disagreed with his decision to withhold security aid from Ukraine over corruption concerns.
“Though executive branch employees are charged with implementing the policy set by our president, who is elected by and responsible to the American people, elements of the civil service have decided that they, not the president, are really in charge,” Nunes said.
Nunes sarcastically congratulated Tuesday’s witnesses, Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, for being selected by Democrats to testify in public after they provided closed-door depositions damaging to the president.
“Ambassador Taylor and Mr. Kent — I’d like to welcome you here, and congratulate you for passing the Democrats’ Star Chamber auditions held for the last six weeks in the basement of the Capitol,” Nunes said. “It seems you agreed, wittingly or unwittingly, to participate in a drama. But the main performance — the Russia hoax — has ended, and you’ve been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel.”
Nunes said Democrats should agree to answer questions about contact between Democrats on the Intelligence Committee and the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint launched the impeachment proceedings.
Nunes also called on them to investigate Ukraine’s cooperation with Democrats seeking damaging information about Trump during the 2016 campaign and to investigate why Ukraine’s Burisma gas company hired an underqualified Hunter Biden to serve on its board while Joe Biden was vice president.
