Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) described the House Democrats’ inquiry into impeaching President Donald Trump as “Soviet-style.”
“They don’t agree with the result with the 2016 election,” Scalise said on the House floor, referring to the Democratic leadership, while saying that this notion is not enough to impeach a president.
“This is Soviet-style rules,” he said, “maybe in the Soviet Union you do something like this.”
Scalise brought a poster to visualize his critique of the impeachment process, showing a communist hammer-and-sickle behind the Kremlin along with text saying it’s been “37 days of Soviet-style impeachment proceedings.”
“This is the United States of America, don’t run a sham process, a tainted process,” Scalise said.
Before this, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) attempted to invoke the Founding Fathers of the United States constitution, saying that U.S. democracy is at stake.
“This constitution is the blueprint for our republic and not a monarchy,” she said, adding that that’s “what this vote is about.”
House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said he’s not celebrating the impeachment process.
“For all the disagreements I have with President Trump, for all his policies, his tweets, and his rhetoric that I deeply disagree with, I never wanted our country to reach this point. I do not take any pleasure for the need of this resolution,“ he said on the floor. ”We are not here in some partisan exercise. We are here because the facts compel us to be here. There is serious evidence that President Trump may have violated the Constitution.”
Other Republicans slammed how the Democrats have controlled the impeachment proceedings, saying they have been secretive and serve to benefit the majority in the House.
“We now have a full-fledged impeachment committee in the basement of the Capitol,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said. “Think about that, America.”
The House was voting to pass a resolution to lay out the ground rules for the inquiry into impeaching President Trump, including how public hearings will proceed, how documents and transcripts will be released to the public, and who will be able to question witnesses.
In a House Rules Committee meeting Wednesday, Republicans assailed Democrats for what they termed is a move to infringe on the rights of President Trump and allowing for procedures that are fundamentally unfair.
The resolution directs the House committees leading the inquiry to send their findings to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and it will decide whether to recommend moving forward with the articles of impeachment.
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