Matt Gaetz, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded Thursday that Senate Republicans call the Ukraine whistleblower to testify if Democrats in Congress refuse to scrutinize his motivation for sparking an impeachment investigation.
Gaetz, who is one of President Trump’s most visible supporters on TV, said calling witnesses was central to Republicans’ defense of Trump.
“If the allegations about the identity of the whistleblower are true, it is very troubling,” he said. “The political activity of the individual I’ve seen named in some public reporting is reflective of bias.”
Gaetz previously tweeted a news report identifying the whistleblower as Eric Ciaramella, a 33-year-old career CIA analyst who served on the White House National Security Council and now works at National Intelligence Council.
The Washington Examiner has reported that Ciaramella worked with former Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama administration and was a guest of Biden’s at a lunch to honor the prime minister of Italy.
Republicans have requested that the whistleblower appear for public hearings, along with Hunter Biden, and Nellie Ohr, a contractor with Fusion GPS which conducted opposition research on Trump, and Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian American who worked with the Democratic National Committee, and others.
“It’s very central to the presentation of our defense — ability to call witnesses. If the Democrats block our access to those witnesses in the House, then we need Chairman Graham to pick that gavel up and use it,” he said, referring to Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Gaetz has been one of Trump’s most vocal supporters throughout the impeachment proceedings. Last month, he led dozens of Representatives in storming a secure committee room where House investigators were hearing witness testimony.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, he said Wednesday’s first public hearing had vindicated his approach.
[WATCH: Officials testify in first public hearing of impeachment investigation]
“No wonder the Democrats were trying to keep it secret for so long,” he said. “I mean, if this was the best they have, it’s not going to be pretty for them in the upcoming election.”
Rather than bombshell evidence, he added, the two opening witnesses delivered a discussion of policy toward Ukraine that would have turned off viewers.
“As I watched the long opening statements, the long opening questioning periods, it sort of seemed like a policy debate about how to make Ukraine great again,” he said. “It appears that some people think that the best way to deal with Ukraine is Javelins. Some people think the best way to deal with Ukraine are MREs and blankets. And some folks think that Russia is a foe, some folks think that Russia can at times be a cooperative force. And it seemed very foreign and distant to the lives of Americans.”
He said he popped into the hearing room on Wednesday but had watched most of the testimony on television as he coordinated his office’s messaging that Democrats had failed to land significant blows.
“I will make a prediction for you. Two weeks from now there will be functionally no change in a favorable way for Democrats and public opinion polling based on yesterday’s testimony,” he said.
Gaetz said the Republican strategy was paying off by identifying career civil servants intent on working against the president.
“I think that our team has been very successful in categorizing this as a policy dispute between permanent Washington and a disruptive, unorthodox Trump administration,” he said.
Nowhere was that divide more visible than in the sartorial choices of a short-sleeved Jim Jordan, a member of the Freedom Caucus drafted on to the intelligence committee to add bite, grilling a bow-tied George Kent, the State Department official in charge of Ukraine policy.
“George Kent couldn’t have dressed any more like permanent Washington,” he said, “and the man was condescending from every thread of this clothing, you know, down to the tip of his tongue.”
