Impeachment is a Political Vendetta
WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel's Hannity last night and Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends this morning to discuss Democrats' baseless articles of impeachment that were unveiled this week. Despite years of witch hunts and investigations, Democrats have not produced a single piece of evidence that President Trump engaged in bribery, extortion, or any other high crimes or misdemeanors. And yet, this week, they unveiled two articles to impeach the president.
Whip Scalise blasted House Democrats for pursuing their unprecedented, partisan impeachment as a political vendetta in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election.
Click here or on the image above to watch the Fox & Friends interview.
Transcribed remarks from Fox News Channel's Hannity:
On President Trump helping Ukraine stand up to Russian aggression, unlike Obama and Joe Biden:
"When you look, I mean, even in [Chairman Adam Schiff's] statements on the comedy show, he expresses his disdain for the people of Ukraine and their fight against Russia. Where was that disdain when Barack Obama was saying no to Ukraine, when [Ukraine] said, 'Hey, help us stand up to Russia?'
"You know, Sean, President Trump has sold 360 Javelin missiles to Ukraine. [President Zelensky] actually thanked President Trump on that infamous phone call. Do you know how many of those Javelins Obama sold? Not one, zero. Obama would not help Ukraine. Obama and Biden, by the way, why haven't they answered for that?"
On Democrats' baseless allegations in their disastrous articles of impeachment:
"So, President Trump gave them the things they need, there was no quid pro quo. You even look at the responses, there were agencies, [Democrats] say 'obstruction of Congress,' whatever they mean by that. Agencies like the Department of Defense, [Democrats] subpoenaed information.
"I've got a letter, you had October 7th, they subpoenaed the Department of Defense for information. On October 15th, the Secretary of Defense himself responded, and not once did they come back to the Defense Department. Not once did they go to court.
"These agencies complied, they might not have given them the answers they wanted, in some cases they might have gone on to courts like President Obama and every other president in history has done. Fast and furious, took us six years to get information.
[...]
"And you look at what we've done to comply. What President Trump is doing, by the way, to get the facts out there, releasing the transcripts to show there was no quid pro quo, and yet they still go on with this. It's a political vendetta. It's not an impeachment. That's with the people of this country are seeing right before our very eyes."
On Democrats' unprecedented partisan impeachment sham:
"Not only will there be no Republicans, there will be Democrats voting against impeachment. Never before in the history of our country have they ran through a partisan impeachment. Never before. It was always bipartisan. Until now, there will be Democrats voting no as well."
Transcribed remarks from Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends:
On Democrats' mission to impeach President Trump from day one, despite any evidence of an impeachable offense:
"[Democrats] biggest problem is that they never started with facts. That's how every other impeachment began, where there was an actual crime committed. There's never been a crime in this case. They've tried to find a crime starting with the Muller investigation. It's been very clear, and I think you're seeing through it this whole impeachment inquiry, this is a political vendetta. This is all about them, first of all, not liking the fact that Donald Trump was duly elected President in 2016, and frankly, they're scared to death he's going to win again because he's been delivering on his promises.
"But that's not why you impeach a President. It's why we have an election next year, let the voters decide this. But there are no facts, there's nothing to impeach this President on. The articles of impeachment that just came out confirmed that, and yet instead of giving it up and moving on to things that people really care about, like lowering drug prices, and securing in our border, it's like their radical base has demanded this the day that Donald Trump got elected office and they can't help themselves."
On Dems using impeachment as a purely political exercise:
"[Democrats] are going back home and they're hearing from people saying 'you ran saying you were going to be different, you said you're going to work with everybody, and now all you've done is have this obsession against Donald Trump, not because he broke any laws.' The President didn't do anything wrong. The phone call, [President Zelensky] himself said there was nothing wrong, but because you don't like the results of an election, and frankly you're more afraid of your radical left base in Washington than you are the constituents who elected you back home, that's the real reckoning.
"Look, every one of these Democrats, if you look at the facts the clear vote is no, you vote against impeachment on these articles because there is no law broken. The constitutional standard is high crimes and misdemeanors. Here there's not even a traffic violation, and yet they're still going to do it, not because of the crime, but because they're afraid of the repercussions from the radical left like [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] up in Washington. That's where they're going to pay a political price, but it's a sad day for our country that it's come to this."
On Pelosi finally agreeing to bring USMCA to the Floor, after nearly a year of delays:
"It's not only desperation, its fabrication. Look, President Trump worked for over a year to negotiate a better trade deal with Mexico and Canada. He's the one who negotiated that, not Nancy Pelosi. And, by the way, that should have been law months ago. At the beginning of this year that could have been law, and over 160,000 new jobs would've be created. You know when people wonder what is the price of impeachment, first of all, it's trampling over our Constitution in the standard of impeachment, but it's all the things that have not gotten done like USMCA, like lowering drug prices, and that's the problem that [Democrats] haven't delivered for the American people. But luckily, President Trump has delivered and continues to."