A Historic Scam
WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel's Hannity last night and Fox Business Channel's Mornings with Maria this morning to discuss House Democrats' partisan impeachment scam that will be a stain on Speaker Pelosi's legacy. Whip Scalise blasted Democrats for trying to settle a political score with an impeachment inquiry that has always been in search of a crime. Make no mistake, instead of working on behalf of American families, impeaching President Trump has been House Democrats' plan from day one. Whip Scalise emphasized how this historic scam will have severe consequences on Speaker Pelosi and her failing Democrat majority in the House.
Click here or on the image above to watch the Mornings with Maria interview.
Transcribed remarks from Fox News Channel's Hannity:
On the stain that impeachment will have on Speaker Pelosi's legacy:
"The consequences are that this is going to be a stain on Nancy Pelosi's legacy. The fact that this was an impeachment in search of a crime, and they never found a crime, Sean. And instead of moving on, their most radical base want an impeachment regardless of whether or not the President did anything wrong. And so, they went after it anyway instead of doing the things that they could have been doing to work with this President to lower drug prices, to address so many other problems in our country. And so, I think that's going to be something they're going to have to live with. It would be the first time in history Sean, by the way, that an impeachment of a president happened on a party-line vote. The only bipartisan vote will be against impeachment, and again, that's going to be a stain on Pelosi's legacy as Speaker."
Transcribed remarks from Fox Business Channel's Mornings with Maria:
On House Democrats trying to settle a political score through impeachment:
"It is disgraceful. I read the President's letter and he documents so many of the things that are wrong about what Speaker Pelosi is doing. Every other impeachment – there's only been three of them – all started with a crime, a specific crime. Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton all had a crime. There's been no crime. It's been an impeachment in search of a crime, but they thought the Mueller investigation was going to be it, it didn't produce anything. But they kept going because it's a personal vendetta against the President. It has nothing to do with anything he did wrong, they just don't like the fact that he got elected in 2016. And more than that, Maria, they're scared to death he will get reelected because he's following through on his promises. But that's not why you impeach a President."
[…]
"The drum beat from the day he got elected, before he was sworn in to office, you had Democrats who are voting today on impeachment say they were going to impeach the President. Not because he did anything wrong, he wasn't even President, just because they didn't like him personally. I've documented over 100 Democrats [who] already voted to impeach President Trump for various things prior to the phone call with President Zelensky. So it's not about the phone call, it's never been about quid pro quo or anything because all of their own witnesses testified the President didn't do anything wrong. They were asked under oath, 'Can you name a law that he's broken,' 'Can you name any bribery?' Not a single thing. And so, it was never about something he did wrong, it was the fact that they just wanted to appease their most radical left base and they're doing it today. But look, over 50 Democrats voted to impeach him because he criticized NFL players for not standing during the Pledge of Allegiance – voting to impeach the President for that – they voted on record, Maria, over a year ago for that."
On the bipartisan support AGAINST the impeachment of President Trump:
"I think there will be Democrats who vote today against impeachment. So, it will be only the first time – the first time in the history of our country – where impeachment was a partisan vote, where it went on party lines and, in fact, the only [bipartisan] vote will be against impeachment today."
[…]
"There are [Democrats] who have expressed strong concerns with what Speaker Pelosi is doing. But, look, they're scared to death. They've threatened all of them in their primaries. Literally, AOC, Pelosi, threatened that if somebody votes against impeachment, they'll run a Democrat against them in their primary. And, you know, look, they're going to have to go back home and explain this. This is going to be, I think, a stain on Nancy Pelosi's legacy as Speaker, because of the way they've done it in such a partisan way, literally breaking the rules of the House. The rules of the House require a minority day of hearing so that you can present the other side. They didn't even allow that. They voted it down in committee. When the committee doesn't have that jurisdiction, it's a House rule, they broke that because they just want to ram this through."
On how Democrats' obsession with impeachment has interfered with working on real solutions for American families:
"We would have lower drug prices today, [but Speaker Pelosi is focused on] impeachment. As you know, we've talked about USMCA for months. It should have been signed into law six months ago, but then you got impeachment. There are things we can do to get our deficit under control, and it really starts with mandatory spending. In our health care bill last Congress, one of the things we did was block grant Medicaid to the states so that states could actually run the Medicaid program better, have more flexibility. It would save over $800 billion. That's serious savings. Plus, you get better health care outcomes for low income people. That's just one reform that we could work on together that Speaker Pelosi refuses to work on because she just [has] this obsession with impeachment."
On President Trump following through on the promises he made, despite Democrats trying to undermine him through impeachment:
"I mean, look, President Trump negotiated a better trade deal with Mexico and with Canada. He's really been working on this from the beginning of his presidency. People thought he was going to get out of NAFTA. Look, I'm a free trade person. I want to have better trade relationships with our allies. And then you go confront China. He's doing all of that, maybe in an unconventional way, but in an effective way. And this is going to be a big win for workers across this country. So, the fact that Speaker Pelosi waited almost a year to get this thing done, it means it's over 160,000 jobs that our economy would already have and higher wages for American workers haven't happened yet because they've [been] delayed because of impeachment. But President Trump's the one who went and renegotiated this while they were criticizing and threatening to impeach him. And the great thing about this President, he doesn't let this get to him. Sure, we shouldn't be here, we shouldn't be doing this. But the President's continued to do his job, fighting for the hardworking people of this country. And I think that's what they hate the most, is that the President's following through on the things he ran on."
On House Republicans working alongside President Trump on behalf of the American people:
"Let's move on and focus on real things we can get done. We absolutely can fix many big problems in health care if the Speaker were to work with the President to lower drug prices. Again, there was a bill that came out of committee, unanimously - every Republican, every Democrat - bringing generics to the market quicker, reforms at the FDA, that could get done."
[…]
"[Democrats] have been infatuated [with impeachment] because it's a personal vendetta against the President. They should be focused on the hardworking families that the President is fighting for. We could get a lot of those big things done. We could have real border security. We could get spending under control, Maria. The plans are out there to get spending under control. Speaker Pelosi has never wanted to address this problem. So, on all these fronts, if they don't address these next year, there will be major issues in the presidential campaign and more reasons why President Trump will get re-elected and we'll get the House back."
On the consequences that impeachment will have on the Democrat party:
"It shows you, why are they trying to impeach the President? There's no crime. He didn't do anything wrong. It's because they're scared to death he'll get re-elected because their field is so weak that you've got more people talking about getting in than there are candidates that are actually leading the pack.
"There are a lot of Democrats that are going to vote today to impeach a President, not based on something that he did wrong, but based on hatred and fear of their radical left base. And they're going to pay a deep price for it. They can't go back home to a lot of these districts and explain the vote they're going to cast today. And so, a lot of them [it] might be one of the last votes they cast."