The Daily Signal - Bonus: Impeachment Inquiry is ‘a Trial in Search of a Crime,’ Rep. Jody Hice Says

Episode Date: November 21, 2019

"They are searching for every haystack they can possibly find in hopes that there's a needle somewhere that they can bring forward and say, 'A-ha, we have something to impeach him,'" says Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga. "And the American people are seeing it for what it is." Tune in for a special bonus podcast interview. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, November 21st. I'm Rachel Del Judas, and I'm sharing my exclusive interview with Congressman Jody Heiss of Georgia, where we take a closer look at Democrats' push to impeach President Donald Trump as they hold their second week of impeachment hearings. We hope you enjoy. We're joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Congressman Jody Heiss, who represents Georgia's 10th Congressional District. Congressman Heiss, thank you so much for being with us today. Well, always great to be with you. It's an honor. Appreciate you having me. Well, we love having you. So last week, House Democrats finished holding the first impeachment hearings on impeaching the president.

We heard from Bill Taylor. He's the acting U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, George Kent, the deputy assistant to the state for European and Eurasian Affairs. And Marie Yovanovitch, who's the former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine. So looking at last week's hearing, what all did you see from those hearings and has any kind of information or answers bingling, what is your takeaways? Yeah, I mean, two things really that stand out to me from last week. Number one, again, it's all hearsay. No one had direct communication with the president. It was, and that's really what this whole thing is being built on. It's a trial in search of a crime, and there's no evidence to substantiate any of it at this point,

and that's totally what we had last week. And I thought one of the highlights from last week was when John Ratcliffe specifically ask the witnesses, why are we here? What is the impeachable offense? And none of them had an answer. There's absolute stunned silence. And that just reiterates the reality that the majority, the Democrats, are moving the goalpost on even what the impeachable offense is. And of course, you know, now it's, it's gone from quid pro quo to extortion to bribery. And I mean, they're bouncing all over the place themselves trying to convince the American people of a crime that didn't happen. And so they're trying to fabricate a crime. And that was really what came out

from last week to me. So you've criticized this impeachment process as a sham. Can you talk a little bit about that and why you see it as a sham? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, something as important as an impeachment inquiry impacts our entire nation. It's something that if we're going to, to go down this path and it needs to be done honestly, it needs to be done openly, it needs to be done with transparency and with an authentic desire to find the truth. That has not been the case in this sham. And that's exactly what it is. For two months, we were in the basement of the Capitol with no transparency, no even attempt seriously to find the truth. Adam Schiff only allowed individuals to come testify who he thought would have damaging testimony towards the president. The president was

not able to defend himself. We were not able to call forth any of our witnesses at the minority party. It was all a one-sided show. We were limited. Members of Congress were not permitted to participate unless you were on certain committees. And even then, it was very difficult to get transcripts. And yet none of it was classified information. What is? ended up being is really two months of an audition for a shift to determine who he thought would be the best witnesses to go public, which is what he's now trying to do. But again, it is an unfair process of not genuinely seeking the truth. It's all the left Democrats who hate the president, who want to turn the 2016 election around, and they are trying to do everything they can to

discredit and disenfranchise the voters of 2016. So on Tuesday, House Democrats started the second week of open impeachment hearings. And so far we've heard from Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. He's the top Ukraine specialist at the National Security Council. He testified as well as Jennifer Williams, who's a Foreign Service aide and Vice President Pence's office, who listened to a call between Trump and the Ukraine's president. What did you think of both of their testimonies, of Vindman's testimonies and Williams? testimony. Still, it's nothing new. It's more of the same-all, same-all. It is, look, in this whole thing,

there's only one person who matters, and that is the President of the United States. What did he say? And we have that transcript. The transcript is readily available for anyone and everyone to read, and it says what it says. And the President of Ukraine, President Zelensky, took it just the way the President Trump said it was. There was no quid pro quo. There was no conditions to the aid. Ukraine was not even aware that any aid was being withheld. And so how do you formulate an impeachable offense that didn't happen?

And so what we have are individuals giving testimony of their opinion. We have people giving testimony who don't like the foreign policy of the president. Well, it's the president's job to submit foreign policy. And if they don't like it, that's their prerogative, but it certainly is not an impeachable offense if they don't like the president's foreign policy. So it's more of the same old argument that the Democrats continue to bring forth its charges with absolutely zero evidence to substantiate the charge. So you mentioned the fact of zero evidence.

Looking ahead to hearings later this week, we're hearing a lot of the same old, same old, as you mentioned, and nothing impeachable has been raised so far. So I guess what do you foresee as happening if none of that evidence actually surfaces? Well, this thing is collapsing day by day, literally moment by moment, as they continue to proceed forward with it, because there is no evidence there. And the American people, as this is becoming public, as people are watching it, they're getting fatigued, quite frankly, from a hearing that has nothing to support the so-called impeachable.

offenses, which even the Democrats themselves can't even define what that offense might be. And so the American people are seeing firsthand that this is a hoax. It is a continuation of a witch hunt that began three years ago when the president was inaugurated. Within days after his inauguration, they were saying already that they were going to impeach him. And he hadn't even had time to get in the office and get started yet. This has been an undertaking of the Democratic Party for three years, they are searching for every haystack they can possibly find in hopes that there's a needle somewhere that they can bring forward and say, aha, we have something to impeach him. And the American people are seeing it for what it is.

So you sit on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and you attended several of the closed-door depositions that happened. I'm curious if there's anything you can share from what you observed. and as a second point to that, have Democrats even been following proper procedure when it comes to the impeachment process? They've been making the rules up and the procedure up as they go, and that's one of the frustrating things with us. The goalpost has been moving all along the way, and so, you know, I cannot get into specifics because we are strictly forbidden from speaking about what happened in those depositions, but I can say from a general perspective that it is. has been the most unfair treatment that I've ever seen. I'm shocked that this type of trial,

which is really what it is, is taking place in the United States, where we have only one side permitted to speak, only one side permitted to call forth witnesses, and the other side during those depositions was not able to do anything. The president unable to defend himself, and we unable to bring forth witnesses from our side of the equation. It's been the most unfair thing I've ever seen in my life, and I just hope that as this becomes more public, that the American people will recognize that and will reject this attempt by the Democrats to destroy and harm the president.

So looking ahead into the rest of the hearings this week, I believe Fiona Hill is scheduled to testify. she was the top Russia specialist at the National Security Council, as well as David Holmes, who's a State Department official. Do you have any forecasts of what you expect to see or just more of the same? Yeah, I kind of expect more of the same. It would be kind of foolish for me to try to speculate what any of them are going to say or testify. So I won't try to go down that hypothetical route. But again, I would say that the only conversation that matters is the conversation the President Trump had with President Zelensky. conversation we have. And in that conversation is absolutely nothing impeachable. There was nothing of demands. There were no preconditions put upon the funding. In fact, this president has

funded the Ukraine with lethal weapons to defend themselves against Russia, something that President Obama never did. And here when you look at that, you think of it just a couple of months ago, the Democrats were accusing President Trump of colluding with Russia, and yet President Trump is the one who is providing aid, lethal aid, to Ukraine to defend themselves against Russia. And so, you know, that is the conversation that matters. The one that the president had with President Zelensky, and everything else is just opinion and presumption made up opinions as, to what the president really meant when what he said is right there in clear view, and what he said is exactly the way President Zelenskyy interpreted it.

President Trump has also said he's open to contributing his own testimony to Democrats' impeachment hearings. Do you think he should testify? Where is your perspective on that? Well, my perspective is he already has. He was not forced to provide the transcript, and he did. He voluntarily put it out there. He this past week came. out with the second conversation he had with President Zelensky. Again, he was not compelled to do so. He is being transparent and open with the conversation that he had. And, you know, what he decides to do beyond that is a decision I'm sure that he and other advisors around him will make.

But in my opinion, the president has already exhibited tremendous transparency and a willingness to cooperate. and by providing the transcript itself is evidence enough of that. One of your colleagues in the House Congressman Jim Jordan, he had tweeted something early this week that I feel like laid out the situation really well, and he had said that in the 55 days that aid to Ukraine was delayed, President Zelensky had five calls in meetings with high-ranking American officials, and in every one of those meetings, there was never a discussion of linking aid to investigating the Bidens. If this is true, and we've seen the transcripts, we've been talking about that, why isn't this being discussed in these hearings?

You know, you'd have to ask the Democrats that. I think the Republican side has done a great job bringing up those facts in this whole thing. Not only did, were there no preconditions in the phone call, but as you just mentioned, in the five meetings it took place afterwards, there is no mention of any conditions in order for aid to come forward. And so, again, this is all nothing. but individuals' opinions basically saying, well, we know there was no, the funds went. We know the funds went.

But what the president really meant was to hold up those funds until we had the investigation on the Bidens or until we had whatever that they claim. But the fact is none of that holds up to what actually happened in those meetings that took place following the phone call, again, are factual evidence that there was, no intent for preconditions in the funds that were going to Ukraine. So impeachment definitely has overtaken all of Washington right now, and especially Congress in the House, as they're holding these hearings. Is there anything Congress should be doing other than holding these impeachment hearings?

Well, the first thing we should do is close the door on these impeachment hearings. It's an absolute hoax in every way. But, yeah, I mean, the Democrats have been so. focused on destroying the president and proceeding with this impeachment inquiry that they have accomplished absolutely nothing since they have been the majority here in the House. And there are multiple issues that need to be addressed. I mean, we haven't even funded the government. And now that is hanging over our head. We haven't funded the military. We have drug pricing that needs to be addressed. We have trade deals, USMCA, that needs to be addressed. There are multiple issues that are

extremely important to the well-being of our country and to every one of our constituents, be it Republican or Democrats, but they have been so focused on one single item, and that is to impeach the president, that they have shown their absolute inability to legislate and do what the American people sent us here to do. So final question, what do your constituents in Georgia think about all these impeachment hearings? Yeah, we've got 750,000, 800,000, and there are different individuals, different parties that are represented. But overwhelmingly, the people in the 10th District of Georgia are fed up with this impeachment inquiry. They see it for what it is. They want it to come to a stop. They see the actions of this president and the

policies of this president are working in our economy. They're working in reestablishing the strength of our military. They're working across the board impacting individual lives. They appreciate this president stands for life. He stands for religious liberties. And they want us to continue supporting this president. And they want this impeachment inquiry to come to an end. I believe at the end of the day, this is going to prove to be an absolute disaster for the Democrats. And in my opinion, well, it should be. Congressman Heist, thank you so much for joining us today on the Daily Signal podcast. Always an honor to be with you. Thank you so much.

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