Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” House Intelligence Committee ranking Republican Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) noted the procedure employed by House Democrats in its so-called impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump is proceeding unlike impeachment efforts in the past and with rules.
That according to the California Republican does not allow for a fair process for both sides.
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Congressman, thanks so much for coming on. So if I’m understanding this correctly, the White House is saying once you make it official, we will cooperate, but not until then.
NUNES: Well, the House Intelligence Committee has become like this secretive impeachment committee but with no rules. And so I don’t blame the White House for saying, look, we’ll just see you in court. We’re not going to — we’re not going to provide you any witnesses. We’re not going to provide you any documents and unless the House of Representatives votes, like has been the tradition, if not, you can hold us in contempt and we’ll see you in court in a matter of months, maybe important months.
CARLSON: But now as a procedural matter, is it true or is it not? I mean, you’re the sitting member, that the House in order to have an impeachment you have to have a vote, right? Leadership can’t just say there’s an impeachment, there has to be a vote.
NUNES: Right? You can’t — I mean, traditionally, we don’t — the House makes its own rules. OK. So one could argue that they’re just making up the rules as they go along. But we do have tradition. Right? And you have precedents. And it’s relatively recent, right? You had the impeachment of Bill Clinton, and the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
So if you’re really going to truly get this through the House, open up an investigation, pass it, vote to impeach a President, send it to the Senate for trial, you have to have a system of government where you have something that is fair, where both sides can actually go out and gather evidence.
CARLSON: Right.
NUNES: And that’s what doesn’t exist today and I think the White House has a very good point, because as someone who’s been in all these meetings, I can tell you, I think it was described today as a kangaroo court and that’s probably being nice.
CARLSON: Yes, if you’re going to have an impeachment, let’s have a vote. You know, it’s a democracy. We vote on things here, like we always used to.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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