House Republicans are still desperately struggling to mount any kind of systematic defense against House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump. This weekend, a handful of top Republicans including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) went on Sunday morning television, where McCarthy unveiled the absolutely outrageous idea that House Republicans should have none other than House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) himself as the witness in a public hearing. McCarthy brazenly lied about Schiff’s personal role in the whistleblower complaint that helped spark the impeachment inquiry.
On CBS’s Face The Nation, the Trump shill told host Margaret Brennan:
‘I think as the very first person, we should bring Adam Schiff and his staff. He is the only individual in America in Congress who knows who this whistleblower is. He refers to himself as a Ken Starr — Ken Starr testified. How many times did he meet with the whistleblower? What did he talk to the whistleblower about? Because when the whistleblower went to the inspector general, he never mentioned that he went with Adam Schiff. Remember what we’re talking about today Margaret — the removal of the president of the United States. This should not be taken lightly.’
There is no apparent evidence that the whistleblower ever met with Schiff a single time.
Who does @GOPLeader want to hear from in the #impeachment probe? “We should bring in Adam Schiff and his staff,” McCarthy tells @facethenation pic.twitter.com/SOXuOWVH1K
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 3, 2019
In early October, the Associated Press reported that the whistleblower’s legal team said neither they nor the whistleblower themselves have “ever met or spoken with Congressman Schiff about this matter” — although that didn’t stop Trump himself from going so far off into the deep end that he suggested that Schiff “probably helped write” the whistleblower’s complaint.
That whistleblower did meet with House Intelligence Committee staff to discuss the proper way to bring his complaints forward, but that is a part of long established process. Intelligence committee spokesperson Patrick Boland said:
‘Consistent with the committee’s longstanding procedures, committee staff appropriately advised the whistleblower to contact an inspector general and to seek legal counsel.’
The whistleblower’s lawyer Andrew Bakaj added:
‘The intelligence community whistle-blower followed the advice of legal counsel from the beginning. The laws and processes have been followed.’
That is a lot more than can be said about Trump himself! The whistleblower chronicled a scheme that he led to get Ukraine to produce dirt on the Bidens that included a July phone conversation in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for an investigation. The White House themselves released a call record of that conversation that shows Trump telling Zelensky he should get in touch with Attorney General Bill Barr and personal Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to get that investigation going. We can all see it! We can all read the transcript!
Republicans have consistently refused to address the actual substance of the situation. At this point, there’s a long list of GOP leaders who have flatly refused to answer the simple question of whether they think it’s appropriate for Trump to have asked for foreign assistance in taking on Joe Biden.
