The Republican House leader says that Democrats fear of facing President Donald Trump in the upcoming election is spurring the impeachment inquiry and that “theyre trying to frame him.”
“Weve never had an impeachment in the first term. They are so afraid of facing the president in the election, theyre trying to frame him,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House minority leader, said during a Nov. 13 appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
“Theyve already accused him of being guilty and they keep changing the term because theyre trying to find a crime.”
McCarthys appearance came shortly before the first public impeachment hearings were slated to be held on Capitol Hill, overseen by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Schiff ordered fellow House members in a memo not to disrupt the hearings and said only members of his committee could speak during the hearing. Other members were welcome to sit in the audience, he said.
Schiff and House Democrats are probing Trump over his requests to Ukraine to “look into” 2016 election interference, citing possible corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and Bidens son Hunter Biden.
Joe Biden in 2016 threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid from Ukraine unless its top prosecutor was ousted; that prosecutor had been probing Burisma, which employed Bidens son from 2014 to 2019. Both Bidens have denied wrongdoing. Democrats say the request to see what happened with the Bidens amounted to interference in the upcoming election since Joe Biden is a Democratic presidential contender.
McCarthy on Fox said that the hearings Schiff has set up leave Trump without a proper defense.
“Theres no due process, the presidents attorney is not in the room, cannot cross-examine, we can not have our witnesses, we cant have a whistleblower who this all started from, an individual who was not even on the phone call,” McCarthy said.
Republicans requested a number of witnesses over the weekend. Schiff has vetoed one request—the person whoRead More – Source
