Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) excoriated the effort of House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to lead an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
McCarthy pointed out the inconsistencies of Schiff’s effort, noting this is the second time Schiff has staged a “coup” against this president.
Partial transcript as follows:
INGRAHAM: Joining me now is House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy. All right Congressman, I just have to say, I wasn’t surprised by this at all.
But it seems like your censure resolution was well-founded. What’s your reaction to the latest news the New York Times broke.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Well, if you watched, the Democrats are trying to discredit democracy. This is a simple exactly what it is and we should go further than censure. He should be removed from the Chairmanship of the Intel committee and one person makes that decision. The speaker of the House.
I requested that in March because let’s walk through this. Two years ago he lied to the American public where he said he had proof and evidence beyond circumstantial and carried us through this nightmare for the last two years he. Then he met with Michael Cohen’s staff what three times, more than ten hours.
He met with Glenn Simpson with Fusion GPS and now he met with this whistleblower and lied to the American public. Every time they have attempted a coup, there’s been one common denominator. The lies and deceit of Adam Schiff. He is now as you know a fact witness.
And nowhere in our justice system allows a fact witness to be the prosecutor. He needs to recuse himself today and the Speaker needs to remove him as the Chairman of one of the most sensitive committees that we have, the Intel committee.
INGRAHAM: She’s not going to do that. Congressman, she’s not going to do that. They are doing the dog and pony show today about how well we want to work with the President on USMCA and well, of course but we’re going to stand with the founders in the constitution.
She was trying to play this big game as I talked about on THE ANGLE but we’ll work with them but we’re standing up for the founding principles of this country. She’s not going to move old Schiff from anything.
MCCARTHY: You know what she’s also doing. She’s not carrying it out in a fair process. Every time that we’ve gone through an impeachment, we’ve had an impeachment inquiry vote on the floor of the House. Why do you have that? Because it sets up the rules and it also empowers the minority to also have subpoena rights.
Think about if you went before trial but you couldn’t call any witnesses. This is exactly what she’s working through and you’re supposed to go through the Judiciary Committee. No, where does she go? To Adam Schiff, the individual who has continued to lie. He lied on MSNBC. He lied last Sunday when he was asked, does he know who the whistleblower is. He lied when he didn’t tell the Intel committee when he had two opportunities, when he had already met.
This sounds a lot like the Kavanaugh situation, the same situation is building of exactly what they’re doing here. This just shows this is all political.
INGRAHAM: His lawyer Mark Zaid who’s represented Schumer and Hillary by the way. He put out a statement today. Whistleblower statement today saying, there was no contact between the legal team and Congress until nearly a month after the whistleblower complaint was submitted to the Intel communities I.G.
I can unequivocally state that neither any member of the legal team nor the whistleblower has ever met or spoken with Congressman Schiff about this matter.
Well what we find out on the New York Times is a staffer of Schiff Congressman, acted as the intermediary. Now why would this need to go to Schiff via a staffer before it became a matter of public record? Why?
MCCARTHY: I think this Adam Schiff needs to tell us what did he know? When did he know it and how many times did he lie to us is in the process and you’re going to tell me this staffer never told the Chairman who he was, didn’t advise in the process and Schiff didn’t advise the staffer on the direction.
Because what did they tell this whistleblower? Where to go to get an attorney? Much like the person who came forward against Kavanaugh, the exact same pattern we have found before. Remember what they wanted to do on the day the President was being sworn into office was the first day that the Democrats talked about impeachment in print.
They voted on it three times. Twice they voted on impeaching this President before one word ever came out from the Mueller report. This has been political for day one and Adam Schiff has proven from this point here, he has no credibility. He has no credibility to be a Chairman and he has no right to be the prosecutor in this case.
INGRAHAM: Congressman, are you concerned as I laid out in THE ANGLE that this impeachment obsession, it’s an obsession is having you know, a destabilizing effect on our domestic policy and maybe in ways that we don’t even know yet, our foreign policy. We have big issues with North Korea, big issues with China.
I mean this is not exactly sending to the world the message of all is copasetic, yes, it’s a Presidential election but we’re a strong country. This is in my view sending a terrible signal to the rest of the world.
MCCARTHY: This is sending a terrible single, breaking the fabric of American democracy itself is what they’re trying to discredit. Remember when they call this out. The Speaker did not wait to have any facts. She had her press conference at the moment that all world leaders were sitting in New York at a UN conference where the President was going to meet with other leaders.
Think for a moment when you think about foreign policy. What other foreign leaders going to feel comfortable talking with the President of the United States.
INGRAHAM: No, they are not, they’re not. Would you?
MCCARTHY: They’re not. No, they’re putting our foreign policy and America in jeopardy.
INGRAHAM: But they want more Congressman. Congressman, be aware and I’m sure you are. They want more transcripts. They’re not stopping at this transcript. They want more transcripts of more meetings of more conversations and I certainly hope the White House counsel’s office and main justice whoever’s doing this, that not happening again.
Because this is a terrible precedent that was set, necessary perhaps in this case but a terrible precedent.
MCCARTHY: We should never allow another one to go forward for the sheer national security of this country.
INGRAHAM: total scam.
MCCARTHY: But this is a scam of what they’re moving forward. They should end this coup, the second one they’ve done because the common denominator is the lies of Adam Schiff.
INGRAHAM: Mr. Minority leader, thank you so much for being here tonight. We really appreciate it.
MCCARTHY: Thank you.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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