Sen. Perdue Introduces Resolution Condemning Closed-Door Impeachment Inquiry
A Senate Resolution was introduced today by Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and other Republican senators “condemning the U.S. House of Representatives’ illegitimate, closed-door impeachment inquiry.”
The resolution states: “The proposition that the Speaker acting alone may direct committees to initiate impeachment proceedings without any debate or a vote on the House floor is unprecedented and undemocratic. The House of Representatives is abandoning more than a century’s worth of precedent and tradition in impeachment proceedings and denying President Trump basic fairness and due process accorded every American.”
The resolution calls upon the House of Representatives to:
- “Vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry prior to proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into President Trump;
- Provide President Trump, like every other American, with due process, to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the accusations against him that would form any basis for impeachment; and
- Provide members of the minority with the ability to participate fully in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas and other compulsory process.”
The resolution is cosponsored by U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Braun (R-IN), Richard Burr (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), James Inhofe (R-OK), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN).
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lawtonsack
Lawton is a graduate of Georgia Southern University (the GSU) with a degree in Information Technology. He has held numerous positions within the Georgia Republican Party throughout the years.
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Hypocritical Deflecting Idiots. For the faithful, Lets see what a ‘Fox & Friends’ discussion had to say.
“Democrats are just “following the rules”—rules written by Republicans.
“I read the House rules,” Napolitano said. “And as frustrating as it may be to have these hearings going on behind closed doors—the hearings over which Congressman Schiff is presiding—they are consistent with the rules.”
“They can make up any rules they want?!” Brian Kilmeade replied.
Speaking more slowly, Napolitano told him, “Well, they can’t change the rules, they follow the rules.” He went to explain that those rules were last written in January 2015 when Republicans held the majority and the Speaker of the House was John Boehner.
“The rules say that this level of inquiry, this initial level of inquiry, can be done in secret,” Napolitano said, effectively dismantling the primary talking point of both Fox News and the Trump White House. “Secret evidence doesn’t work in this world, so eventually there will be a public presentation of this,” he added, “at which lawyers for the president can cross-examine these people and challenge them.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-napolitano-schools-fox-and-friends-on-impeachment-adam-schiff-just-following-the-rules-written-by-gop
You only address part of the GOP complaint at least as Sen Graham explained it. I’m pretty sure there is no rule saying the majority may selectively leak certain statements or documents to tarnish the president’s image and re-election chances. If they are going to conduct secret hearings, then do it quickly without all of the biased leaks. The whole thing is a major waste of time and taxpayer money, it’s time to put up or shut up.
Quickly? this is going all at a realistic pace. The number of relevant investigations and witnesses increases daily.
Biased leaks? We suffer from Majority/Minority creating/leaking/denying/claiming something true or false everyday.
Tarnish a candidates election chances.? LOL. That’s the MO of every American Political campaign: misinformation and borderline libel/slander.
Congress lives primarily to fight its own campaign battles over actually doing their job of working for the citizens. Damn legislation! Everything is a ‘politically motivated’ attack and must be shut down because politicians are above the law.
Political membership/label/brand must be defended over truth and law. How dare anyone investigate a criminal/civil/ethic/constitutional violation against an elected official? The tired “You’re just biased because I’m (insert party affiliation)” is a juvenile, irrelevant excuse. Yet it shows candidates and elected officials believe they are above reproach and investigation once they have entered the golden realm of the political sphere.
“major waste of time and taxpayer money”? Flashback: Benghazi. The panel, which spent more than $7.8 million (figures vary depending on source and do not include Pentagon and State Dept. defense costs) over two and a half years. The Benghazi Hearings was a very expensive, time consuming way for the Republicans in the US House of Representatives to try and smear Hillary Clinton and President Obama.
Indeed it’s a certainty the House impeachment investigation will completed in a fraction of the Benghazi time.
“41 Republican members of the House of Representatives stormed past police officers into the room where Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official with jurisdiction over Ukraine affairs, was about to testify in front of the three committees investigating the Ukraine scandal. Led by Minority Whip (the second in command of the House GOP) Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the members insisted they were trying to break down the unfair “secrecy” in which the Democrats were holding their investigations. They broke into the room, a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities) room, where meetings that involve national security are held. They stayed there, refusing to leave. This prevented Cooper, who was expected to produce more negative information, from testifying until late this afternoon.
Their words to the cameras were designed to imply that Republicans are being kept from the investigation, but that’s simply not true. The Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees investigating the Ukraine scandal have 103 members. Forty-eight of those members are Republicans, and they are welcome to attend meetings and question witnesses the same as Democrats are. That means about a quarter of the House Republicans can be in the meetings, including Vice President Mike Pence’s brother, Greg Pence (R-IN), who is a members of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Indeed, there were Republicans in the room when their colleagues broke in, and 13 of the Republicans joining the protest were actually members of the committees. They could’ve been in the room legally if they wanted to be.
The rest of them could not be there, since they are not members of those committees. This is absolutely normal for congressional business: you cannot simply walk into a closed committee meeting unless you are on the committee. Relatively little congressional business is done by the whole Congress assembled together. Instead, most business gets delegated to standing committees: Judiciary, Intelligence, Ways and Means, Foreign Affairs, and so on, who report back to Congress only after their work is done. And a great deal of the work of the House Intelligence Committee is done behind closed doors, because it deals with issues involving national security (like spies).
The suggestion that there is something nefarious going on here is disingenuous. In an impeachment case, the House needs to do an investigation to decide whether or not it is appropriate to impeach the president. It’s rather like a grand jury collecting evidence. That’s the stage we’re at currently. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has stated that he does not want this testimony public because he does not want potential lawbreakers to be able to coordinate their stories. This is not uncommon: the Benghazi hearings, conducted under South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, were also closed. (Gowdy famously threw out his colleague Darrel Issa (R-CA) former chair of the Oversight Committee.)”
quoted from a report by Heather Cox Richardson
Complaining about and attacking the process are all that’s left when facts, ethics, and morality aren’t on side.