Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” syndicated conservative talk show host Mark Levin, the author of “Unfreedom of the Press,” weighed in on the report the Department of Justice was conducting a criminal investigation into the internal tampering into the 2016 presidential election.
Levin also criticized the so-called “impeachment inquiry” underway in the House, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
He accused Schiff and House Democrats of using impeachment for the sake of improving their chances in the 2020 election.
Partial transcript as follows:
HANNITY: Now with more on the Democrats, Soviet-style secret impeachment coup attempt. Plus all the breaking news tonight about Durham, Horowitz’s probes. “The Great One” Mark Levin, Mark I got. Just first ask a question. Then I’m going to let you go my friend. All right?
FISA reports coming out, but now we have the Justice Department have now shifted this review of the origins of the Russian witch-hunt and that means the prosecutor running it, John Durham, has the power for subpoena for witnesses, testimony, documents. He can impanel a grand jury and file charges. This is huge. Your reaction.
MARK LEVIN, “UNFREEDOM OF THE PRESS” AUTHOR: First of all, I won’t be voting for her. I’ll be voting for Donald Trump. Just wanted to note that.
HANNITY: Yes, me too.
LEVIN: Tell you what’s interesting about this New York Times article. You have about two sentences from a leak that this is shifted from an administrator review to a criminal investigation.
And then The New York Times predictably smears Barr, smears Durham, smears Trump. So that’s what we’re going to get from The New York Times. We’re not going to get news. So it’s very important this is shifted to a criminal investigation. That means they think they found something, Sean. They don’t just do that. And so they’ll be under attack.
They won’t be treated like Mueller and his gang of Democrats, they’ll be under attack. But with a very brave Attorney General and a very brave U.S. Attorney and they should just keep at it. The rule of law is what matters.
I want to spend a little bit of time that we have actually going over what the House of Representatives did when the Republicans controlled it in 1998. I think we have some graphics on this. Just so the American people understand the tyrannical process that’s going on with the Democrats in the House of Representatives.
What we have is a rogue Democrat Party and the House of Representatives that’s using the institution of the House and the impeachment clause to interfere with the 2020 election. They’re interfering with the 2020 election more than the Russians did, more than the Ukrainians did, even though that was bad enough. And they’re using our tax dollars to do it.
In the report in, October 7, 1998, by the Judiciary Committee to the full House controlled by the Republicans they said, “It is the intention of the Committee that its investigation will be conducted in all respects on a fair, impartial, bipartisan and nonpartisan basis.
In this spirit the power to authorize subpoenas and other compulsory process is committed by this resolution in the first instance to the Chairman and the ranking minority member, acting jointly. If either declines the act, the other may act alone subject to the right of either to refer the question to the full Committee.”
So there you have an active participation by the minority party. It goes on. And this was presented to the full House for a vote and it was passed.
It says, “Because the issue of impeachment is of such overwhelming importance, the Committee decided that it must receive authorization from the full House before proceeding on any further course of action, because impeachment is delegated solely to the House of Representatives by the Constitution.
The full House of Representatives should be involved in critical decision- making regarding various stages of impeachment. Also a resolution authorizing an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of a President is consistent with past practice. According to Hind’s Precedents, the impeachment of President Johnson was set in motion by a resolution authorizing a general investigation as to the execution of the laws.”
They went on further. The impeachment investigation of President Nixon was explicitly authorized by the full House. During debate of H.RES 803 in 1974, Congressman Rodino, then Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary stated, “We have reached the point when it is important that the house explicitly confirm our responsibility under the Constitution.
We are asking the House to authorize and direct the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate the conduct of the President of the United States. Such a resolution has always been passed by the House. The Committee has voted unanimously to recommend that the House of Representatives adopt this resolution. It is a necessary step if we are to meet our obligations.”
They went on, so Nixon and Clinton got treated fairly. Trump gets treated worse than a terrorist or a mass murderer.
They go. “President’s procedural rights, prior to the October 5 Committee meeting, some raise concerned about procedural fairness and encourage the Committee to adopt rules similar those that talked to by the Committee in 1974 with Nixon, which would provide the President with certain procedural rights.
After voting on the Hyde resolution, the Committee adopted by voice vote a number of protections for the President. That President and his counsel shall be invited to attend all executive session and open Committee hearings.
That President’s counsel may cross-examine witnesses– the President’s counsel. The President’s counsel may make objections – the President’s counsel, regarding the pertinency of evidence. The President’s counsel should be invited to suggest that the Committee receive additional evidence.
Lastly, the President or the President’s counsel shall be invited to respond to the evidence adduced by the Committee at an appropriate time. The provisions will ensure that the impeachment inquiry is fair to the President.”
I hear some of these legal analysts out there going on and on about that’s the next stage. No I’m afraid not. You didn’t have an official vote on an impeachment hearing. This entire thing is the Democrat Party in the House seizing control of the instrumentalities of the House, bastardizing the impeachment Clause in order to drive a trial into the general election.
Here’s a piece from POLITICO. Wow, “Ukrainian government official” – this is from January 2017, written by leftists. “Tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office.
They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisors, a political investigation found.”
It goes in excruciating detail how the Clinton campaign, how the DNC, how the Obama administration in 2016 worked with the corrupt Ukrainian government to help Hillary and undermine the Trump campaign. This is why the President wants to know what the hell happened in 2016.
Quickly, we have testimony from William Taylor, who the hell’s William Taylor? All of a sudden he’s the great William Taylor, because Adam Schiff has anointed at him such. He’s a longtime State Department bureaucrat. He’s the Acting Ambassador To the Ukraine.
And he talks about, among other things, this highly irregular conduct, this second channel with Rudy Giuliani going around the State Department. Because you know, Sean, you can’t go around the State Department.
Well, there was a great piece in the RealClearInvestigations. And guess what, Sean, George Washington had a private party, Governor Morris go around Jefferson in the State Department, Bill Clinton used Jesse Jackson and Bill Richardson to go around the State Department. Richard Nixon used arm-and-hammer to go around the State Department.
Woodrow Wilson used Edward House to go around the State Department. Warren Harding and used James Logan. Jimmy Carter used J. Paul Austin. Franklin Roosevelt used Harry Hopkins. He so used Harry Hopkins to set foreign policy. Harry Hopkins had a room in the White House. He took his baths in the White House. He lived in the White House.
And yet they’re trying to turn Rudy Giuliani this irregular process. When it comes to Presidents of the United States it’s not terribly irregular at all. We had the ex-Ukraine Ambassador Marie – I can’t pronounce her name – Yovanovitch. She’s angry because the President and his people forced her out of office. Excuse me, you’re an Obama holdover. You should get the hell out of office. We had a new election. The President gets to decide.
Oh, and while we’re at, it the media. You remember, Sean, with the media circled the wagons when the President of United States had the Jim Acosta effectively, you’re disrupting these Presidential press conferences. You’re pre-Madonna (ph). This is for the American people. You’re not allowed here anymore.
Remember what the media did? They go into court. The media circled the Reagan’s (ph). They – well, this guy is a dictator. We, the press, we have a right to report on what the President is doing. We had press associations – whoa, it was a horrible, horrible thing.
Meanwhile, there’s still 200 people reporting on what the President has done. Here’s my question–
HANNITY: Mark.
LEVIN: Where are these press organizations today when it comes to Adam Schiff keeping the press out of this secret testimony, this secret hearings–
HANNITY: Mark, I got to go.
MARK LEVIN: They don’t much give a damn anymore, do they?
HANNITY: Let me tell you. That’s why that book “Unfreedom of the Press” was #1 forever. Life, Liberty, Levin.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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