Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) and radio host Chris Plante joined Breitbart News Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle for a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) panel on Saturday discussing the collusion that took place in the 2016 election at the hands of the Obama administration, Clinton campaign, and Ukraine — something rarely mentioned among the establishment media.
“We did see another country engage in interference in the election in 2016. That was the Ukrainians. They came after President Trump, then-candidate Trump, ” Boyle said, kicking off CPAC’s Saturday morning panel discussion and noting a few instances of Ukrainian attempts at interference.
“They had their ambassador writing op-eds against him. They had other senior officials, their interior minister attacking him aggressively, so this is the story that the establishment media doesn’t tell,” he noted.
Hice, who watched this play out firsthand, said, “As it relates to Ukraine, there is absolutely no question in the world” that “real collusion” took place among three actors the establishment media does not tend to discuss.
“There was a collaborative effort to interfere with the elections of 2016, but that collusion involved the Obama administration, Clinton campaign, and Ukraine. Those were the centerpiece. That was the epicenter of it, and the individual that surrounded all of it was Paul Manafort,” Hice said.
Hice said it is “absolutely stunning” how “severe, how purposeful, how collaborative this attempt was to interfere with our elections,” but stressed that it “came from within our own nation” among “individuals here who need to face the consequences.”
The Chris Plante Show host noted that it is “not unfair” to call the establishment media’s refusal to discuss the real collusion a “cover-up.”
“It’s not unfair to call it a cover-up. They cover up the indiscretions of the Democratic Party quite regularly,” he said.
“When it comes to Ukraine and the focus – laser-like focus on Russia, Putin — this is a fiction conjured up by the DNC and the Democratic Party fed to their allies in the news media,” he added, referencing the “New York Times, Washington Post, and beyond.”
The panel discussed the origins of the interference, noting that Trump was “never supposed to win” the Republican Primary and 2016 election. Nonetheless, Trump took key primary states, surged in the polls, and steamrolled into the Republican convention. Clinton, however, was “absolutely confident” she would win.
Hice said Democrats underestimated Trump’s power and his connection with the American people, noting that they have been after him ever since. He also highlighted the significance of Alexandra Chalupa, the DNC contractor and Ukrainian-American activist who played a major role in the collusion effort of the Obama administration, Clinton campaign, DNC, and Ukraine.
“She is at the DNC, which is funded of course by, paid for by, Hillary Clinton, but she is kind of the center between Ukraine and the United States, and she connects a couple of key people over here to our government over here and these folks have ties to the Ukrainian government to funding the Clinton foundation to Fusion GPS to all this stuff,” Hice said. “She gets them to come over to the United States, and the Obama administration grants them meetings with the FBI the — all our departments — National Security Council, all these things. They have frequent meetings. Chalupa met 27 times in the White House during all this.”
When asked by Boyle how the GOP can move forward with the likes of Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) — two mentions that drew boos from the crowd — constantly resisting the president, Hice affirmed that Republicans must take the House back.
“You have never in your life seen anything more unfair,” Hice, who had a front-row seat in the impeachment depositions, said, citing no witness, no defense for the president, and 17 witnesses “handpicked” by Schiff.
Schiff acted as the “counsel, prosecutor, he was everything in these meetings and then leaked information that would be damaging to the president,” he continued. “I was shocked. I was fearful for our country to see how this was railroaded on the American people, all for the purpose of destroying a sitting, duly elected president.”
The Georgia lawmaker noted that there are investigations in the works, like the Durham investigation, but agreed with Boyle that “we’ve got to take the House back.”