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Congressman: Democrats Still Refusing To Release Transcripts From ‘Secret’ Depositions

   DailyWire.com
DECEMBER 10, 2019: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, along with Chairman Elliot Engel, Chairwoman Maxine Waters, Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and Chairman Richard Neal gather to speak to journalists to announce the specific articles of impeachment during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday December 10, 2019.
Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Texas Republican Representative Michael Burgess revealed during an interview on Friday that Democrats are still refusing to release transcripts of depositions that were conducted in secret by Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Burgess made the remarks during an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” with co-host Molly Line, where he said Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) goal with impeachment was to “politically harm the president at the beginning of a political year.”

“You think they are stalling in essence to continue digging?” Line asked. “That they’re hoping they find something more?”

“Look, they had all the tools at their disposal up on the House side. They made it secret, not just behind locked doors, but with armed guards outside the doors,” Burgess responded. “They still haven’t made all of the transcripts available to members of Congress and, according to House rules, any committee hearing is supposed to be – the transcript is supposed to be available to other House members, but they have not done so, and no one has asserted that these are classified briefings; they were just simply secret hearings because it behooved the speaker to have secret hearings. That doesn’t pass muster. That’s not a constitutional part of the process.”

WATCH:

Partial transcript of the segment:

MOLLY LINE: As Speaker Pelosi holds onto the articles of impeachment, how long can she stall? Congressman Michael Burgess serves on the House Rules Committee. We appreciate you joining us on this holiday week, wonderful to have you with us. So, Democrats and Nancy Pelosi have said they are waiting on these articles, that they’re working to ensure there is a fair trial in the Senate, but there have been a lot of theories floated by Republicans, by folks from the other side of the aisle, that think that Nancy Pelosi is stalling for all sorts of reasons. I want to get your thoughts on why these articles are being held.

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R-TX): My first take is that they are holding the articles because they really had nothing in the first place. So, if they send them over to the Senate and it crashes and burns, the president is exonerated, and they did not accomplish what they set out to accomplish, which was to politically harm the president at the beginning of a political year.

LINE: You think they are stalling in essence to continue digging? That they’re hoping they find something more?

BURGESS: Look, they had all the tools at their disposal on the House side. They made it secret, not just behind locked doors, but with armed guards outside the doors. They still haven’t made all of the transcripts available to members of Congress and, according to House rules, any committee hearing is supposed to be –the transcript is supposed to be available to other House members, but they have not done so, and no one has asserted that these are classified briefings; they were just simply secret hearings because it behooved the speaker to have secret hearings. That doesn’t pass muster. That’s not a constitutional part of the process.

LINE: We have a brilliant producer, Chad Pergram, who works on Capitol Hill, you’re most likely familiar with Chad – brilliant behind the scenes as well on camera, and also in writing, and he wrote this, it’s a reporter’s notebook: “Why is Pelosi holding the articles of impeachment? D.C. Insiders have some theories. … Pelosi has known how to get under Trump’s skin. Consider how Trump talked about how he wandered around alone at the White House last Christmas during the government shutdown. The president said just the other day that he wanted a speedy trial. By holding onto the articles, Pelosi could deny the president his most prominent wish and essentially rent space in Trump’s head. The president thought this would all be done by mid-January. Not now.” So, is Pelosi pulling kind of like a Jedi mind trick? This is all about making the president wait, lingering this out, just getting into his head? What you think about that idea?

BURGESS: Maybe. Who knows what they’re actually thinking, or if there’s even any thought processes that are actually going on. But look, what are we talking about this morning? We’re talking about the president; we’re talking about President Trump. Any time we’re talking about President Trump, he’s winning. So, if they think they’re playing a mind game or trying to get under Trump’s skin, okay great, but people are sick of this. The words I hear most often are mad, sad, and frustrated by the process that’s taken so long in the House, and you know what, there are other things we could be doing that we are not doing, kind of underscored by the last-minute passage of that big trade agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. I think Mexico is our number one trading partner. The fact that that agreement was held up for almost a year because they didn’t want to give the president a win on anything and they wanted to occupy their time with impeachment. People are frustrated by this.

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