Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced Thursday that committee Democrats would not attend an official border hearing next week in Arizona, misleadingly claiming “there was no consultation” with them about it.
Nadler, along with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who serves as ranking member on the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, said in a statement:
Next week, Judiciary Republicans will hold their second stunt hearing on border security. Despite the importance of this issue, there was no consultation with Judiciary Democrats, many of whom have already committed attending other bipartisan congressional delegation trips.
The Democrats’ claim of a lack of “consultation” comes after committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced to Nadler and the other Democrats the dates of the hearing and that it would take place at the border on February 1, three weeks ahead of the scheduled event and two weeks earlier than House rules require.
Republicans on the committee were quick to call Nadler and Jayapal’s statement “fake news” and shared a clip of Jordan announcing the hearing on social media.
Watch:
The Republicans also stated that they had been communicating with Democrats for “weeks” about the trip and that Democrats were “just scared to face the harsh realities of the #BidenBorderCrisis.”
A senior Republican aide told Breitbart News that committee staff had been “in communication with Democrat staff about the border hearing via phone, text, and email.”
“All of the Democrats were invited to come, but apparently not one could find time to attend an official congressional hearing,” the aide said, noting that “Democrats have asked if it was acceptable for them to send a staffer on the trip. How did the Democrat staffer find out about the trip if they weren’t consulted?”
Nadler and Jayapal suggested in their statement that Democrats would also not attend the hearing because Republicans would not have “any federal government witnesses” at the hearing, a detail that has not been made public by the committee or been reported anywhere yet and that serves as further evidence of “consultation” between the two parties about the trip.
Nadler and Jayapal stated:
Instead of focusing on real solutions to a complicated problem, Judiciary Republicans will once again not hear from any federal government witnesses at their hearing, further cementing this hearing as a brazen act of political grandstanding. As a result, Democrats, who have been to the border regularly the last few years, will not attend next week’s performative hearing.
A second GOP source confirmed to Breitbart News the committee plans to have local officials and community members affected by the ongoing surge of illegal migration attend the hearing, which falls in line with committee Republicans’ three-pronged plan to address immigration. The first prong involves examining the “human story” behind the border issues. Later hearings will undoubtedly include federal officials, as indicated by letters Jordan has sent to the Department of Homeland Security.
Nadler and Jayapal said Democrats will take their own border trip in March, though that trip will not function as a formal congressional hearing given the minority party does not have the power to schedule those.
Breitbart News reached out to committee Democrats’ press office for comment but did not receive a response.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
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