House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy previewed a shift in the party’s impeachment strategy during a private meeting with senior Republican aides, saying a sharper focus on defending President Trump against allegations behind the inquiry would begin when Democrats open the process.
House Democrats have run the impeachment process through the secretive Intelligence Committee with Republicans for the past month, concentrating the lion’s share of their criticism on claims the process is unconstitutional and unfair.
In the new phase, McCarthy said the Republicans’ defense of Trump would revolve around the facts in a coordinated campaign to undermine the Democrats’ case for impeachment, which centers on the president asking Ukraine to target political rivals and made United States military aide contingent on that request.
Nevertheless, McCarthy said that Republicans would still criticize the process. Expect them to claim the inquiry was irrevocably poisoned and that Democratic action to formalize it, in a floor vote expected on Thursday, came “too late.”
“I’d rather be us than them,” McCarthy said Monday, according to a House Republican chief of staff who attended the meeting and spoke to the Washington Examiner.
McCarthy offered clues as to how Republicans plan to respond to a more open impeachment process and defend Trump against the most serious charges of abuse of power during a Friday interview at the Sea Island Summit, a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner.
He told an audience of conservative activists and donors that Trump, during his telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was simply attempting to get to the bottom of what really happened in 2016 regarding foreign interference in the election. That’s why, McCarthy said, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice president he could face on the ballot in 2020, and Biden’s son, Hunter.
“He didn’t talk about something for 2020,” McCarthy explained, adding: “Look at the phone call: Is there any quid pro quo? The phone call took place July 25. Remember that date. In all these testimonies, I’m finding out, Ukraine had no idea that any money was being held up to them until Aug. 29. And how’d they find out? A Politico story. The money was released on Sept. 11. What did Ukraine do to get the money released? Nothing. Nothing.”
Presuming Republicans are permitted to call witnesses in impeachment proceedings, McCarthy said he would like to call Rep. Adam Schiff, House Intelligence Committee chairman, to testify. McCarthy charged the California Democrat with colluding with the Intelligence Community whistleblower whose report surfaced the allegations against Trump.
“If you met with the whistleblower, if your staff met with the whistleblower, who knows what was said? Well, only you, your staff, and the whistleblower. That makes you a fact witness. Nowhere in our judicial system allows a fact witness to be the prosecutor,” McCarthy said.
