Scalise: This is Not What the Founders Expected
WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined CBS News Channel's Special Report with Norah O'Donnell to discuss Democrats' plan to impeach President Trump from the day he was sworn in to office. Democrats' baseless articles of impeachment should have never been brought to the Floor. It's a national disgrace. Whip Scalise called out Democrats for their blatant violation of House rules to deny Republicans the right to hold minority hearings with the witnesses Democrats blocked Republicans from calling.
On the bipartisan support AGAINST impeachment:
"There will be no Republicans voting for impeachment and, in fact, there will be some Democrats who vote against impeachment. So, it will be the first time, by the way, in the history of our country that there will be a partisan impeachment of a President, every other one was bipartisan. The only bipartisan vote today will be against impeachment."
On Democrats deciding to impeach President Trump from the day he was sworn in to office:
"It says they are out of step with the will of the people that they represent, and they are trying to nullify that vote in 2016 where people all across the country - 63 million people - elected Trump as President. You had Democrats from that day saying they were going to impeach him. You had over 100 Democrats vote to impeach President Trump before the Zelensky phone call for things like criticizing NFL players for kneeling during the pledge, or criticizing the members of the Squad - over 90 members voted to impeachment the President for criticizing members of the Squad. This is not what the Founders expected when they said bribery, treason or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The standard was always you start with a crime and then you investigate. This was an impeachment in search of a crime and they never found a crime yet still move forward."
On President Trump helping Ukraine stand up to Russia, unlike Obama and Joe Biden:
"When you look at the phone call, President Trump and President Zelensky - when the President said, ‘will you do us a favor?,' he was talking about the Russian interference and potentially the Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. And everyone knew there was corruption in Ukraine, Zelensky got elected on the platform to clean it up and we're glad that he's working on doing that. President Trump thanked him on some of the things he's doing. President Zelensky thanked President Trump for selling the Javelin missiles that allow Ukraine to stand up to Russia. Obama and Biden did not sell the Javelins to Ukraine and so they weren't able to stand up to Putin in the Obama years. I don't know why they didn't help Ukraine back then, but at least President Trump did help and give them the tools they need."
[…]
"Biden himself bragged that he withheld taxpayer money, a billion dollars, if Ukraine didn't fire the prosecutor looking into his son. A lot of people think that doesn't pass the smell test, but at some point I'm sure he'll have to answer for that. But in the meantime, it was never a condition for getting aid to Ukraine. Ukraine got the money, they never did an investigation as far as we know and President Zelensky said there was no pressure multiple times, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine said there was never any pressure and they thanked President Trump for the help he gave them to stand up to Putin, help that Obama did not give Ukraine."
On urging enforcement of the House rules for Democrats' blatant violation of the minority party rights:
"At the beginning of the debate, [Republicans tried] to make motions to do some things. For example, the House rules require the minority get a day of hearings to present their case. That was never allowed. They rejected our ability to have what the rules allow. The rules say that we shall have a day of hearings to present the alternative case. Why Democrats refused us that ability, they don't want the facts to come out. It's been clear this is a personal vendetta against the President. It has nothing to do with impeachable offenses. Witness after witness was asked on the record, ‘Can you name an impeachable offense,'–‘have you seen any bribery?' Every one said no but moved forward because it's a personal vendetta. Let's let the voters decide who the President should be, not Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and people trying to appease the radical base in Washington."