Impeachment in Search of a Crime

WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) and Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) at today's leadership press stakeout to discuss Democrats' baseless accusations against President Trump on the eve of their partisan vote in support of impeachment. Despite any evidence of a crime committed by President Trump, Democrats have used impeachment as a personal and political vendetta to overturn the results of the 2016 election. Whip Scalise emphasized how Democrats have failed to make their case clear to the American people while President Trump and House Republicans have remained focused on fighting for American families.

On Democrats wanting to impeach President Trump since the day he took office:

"Tomorrow's impeachment vote will be a stain on Nancy Pelosi's legacy as Speaker. From the very beginning, you could see that this was more about settling a political score. A personal vendetta against President Trump where the most radical elements of Speaker Pelosi's base called for impeachment before he even took the oath of office. ... By the way, tomorrow will mark the first time in our country's history where a president was impeached on a party line vote. Never before has that been done. And, in fact, the only bipartisan vote tomorrow will be against impeachment. And so, instead of starting with a crime - which is what the case was with Andrew Johnson's impeachment, with Richard Nixon's impeachment, and with Bill Clinton's impeachment. They all started with a specific crime and then ultimately went through their inquiries and moved to impeachment. That's never been the case here. There was never a crime. It was an impeachment in search of a crime meandering around as a witch hunt trying to find something wrong, starting with the Mueller investigation. They kept promising - you remember Schiff's statements - he promised that he had more than circumstantial evidence that there was collusion with the President and Russia. And then the Mueller report comes out, and in fact there was no collusion."

On how Democrats' obsession with impeachment has interfered with working on real solutions for American families:

"Instead of just ending it there, they kept going on. And then there was a whistleblower report. We heard all the salacious allegations against the President, and none of those turned out to be the case. In fact, every single witness that came before the committees of jurisdiction when they were asked point-blank, under oath, 'Can your name and impeachable offense?' Not one. 'Can you name any bribery?' Not one. And again, at that point, you would've thought maybe [common sense] would prevail and they would move on to actually working to solve the problems that people across this country face. When there was a unanimous bill that came out of committee to lower drug prices - literally a layup waiting to be sent to the President's desk, where every Republican and every Democrat on the committee of jurisdiction voted to lower drug prices and to bring generics to market quicker so that families could be playing less today for their drugs at home, which is a major problem. [Democrats] wouldn't bring that bill to the [House Floor] because they were so fixated with impeachment."

On President Trump standing with Ukraine, unlike President Obama:

"So, this obsession continued and it's going to play itself out tomorrow. It's going to be a sad day. But again, when you look throughout history, when they focused on the facts, those were the times that they produced bipartisan votes. The facts here have strongly supported the President. The Zelensky call, you ask Zelensky, and he said he appreciated the phone call. He actually got Javelin missiles that he was able to buy that President Trump sold him to stand up to Russia that President Obama and Joe Biden wouldn't sell. Why wouldn't President Obama and Joe Biden sell missiles to Ukraine so they could stand up to Russia and Putin? I don't know, it's a good question that they should be asked. But President Trump did. In his first year, he sold those Javelin missiles. There was no exchange of any quid pro quo. There was no investigation. He did it because it was the right thing to do and he stood by an ally. President Zelensky thanked him for that and in fact, when asked, President Zelensky said there was no pressure on the phone call. He got the aid and ultimately there was no investigation, and yet they still march on. Not because they found any facts or evidence, but because they've been wanting to score a political and personal vendetta against the President that started well before the phone call."

On Democrats using impeachment as a personal vendetta against President Trump:

"Before the phone call, over 100 Democrats voted to impeach this President, before the phone call. In fact, there is one article that we forced a vote on that they were trying to impeach the President because he criticized NFL players for kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance. Over 50 Democrats voted to impeach the President of the United States for that. Now, do people across the country think that meets the constitutional standard of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors? Of course not. Doesn't pass the smell test. But it shows that this has been a personal vendetta against the President, not a fact-finding mission in search of an impeachable offense, because there was no impeachable offense."

On House Republicans working alongside President Trump to deliver on promises made to the American people:

"So, we're going to continue doing our work. We're going to work hard to pass USMCA so we can have a better trade deal with our friends Canada and Mexico, and then work to get better deals with other countries around the world. And then focus our efforts on holding China accountable. And I'm glad that President Trump continues to work for the American people and the families that he fought for, the forgotten men and women in this country that had been left behind. President Trump is still fighting for them, even while Pelosi is wasting her majority on trying to score a personal vendetta."