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Doug Collins: House Democrats’ Attacks On Senators Show They Have Nothing On Trump

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UNITED STATES - MAY 8: Ranking member Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., is seen during a House Judiciary Committee markup in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, May 8, 2019, to vote on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the unredacted Mueller report to the committee.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) told Fox News on Sunday that Democratic House impeachment managers insulted members of the U.S. Senate last week because they do not have the evidence they need to convict President Donald Trump of their articles of impeachment.

“If you’re a lawyer and you’re going to present the case to the ‘jury,’ the first thing you don’t do is go insult them and actually make a case in which they are turned off by what you’re saying,” Collins said. “But it is not a shock, because here’s what happened with the House managers. The reason they did it, number one, is the president is not guilty. He did nothing wrong. The facts and the truth are on the president’s side, and the House managers know that.”

“Number two, we knew it was a political impeachment, because when they actually looked at it from the perspective of what do they want to do, they didn’t want to go to court, they didn’t want to take the witnesses, they didn’t want to do the due diligence that they should have done in the House. So it was a political impeachment,” Collins continued. “So, what are you left with? Well, I guess we’re left with it. Let’s see if we can shame the Senate into doing our job for us.”

“But I think it backfired on them, especially when Chairman Nadler said that, if you don’t agree with me, then you’re – then you’re basically – you’re corrupt, that you’re hiding something,” Collins continued. “That just should show the American people in a clear form that the House managers have nothing on this president, except smear, innuendo, and an election in 2020 in mind.”

WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT:

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Now the defense. More reaction now to the Senate impeachment trial from a member of president’s defense team, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins.

Congressman, it’s always a pleasure to see you. Thank you for being here.

REP. DOUG COLLINS (R-GA): Glad to be here, Maria.

BARTIROMO: So, your reaction what you heard yesterday.

And I think it was a – it was, I don’t know, interesting, maybe, strategy of the House prosecutors calling out the Senate. You had comments from Adam Schiff, saying that the White House must have warned you that, if you go against the president, your head will be on a pike, or Jerry Nadler saying to the jury, the senators, you are involved in a cover-up.

Your reaction?

COLLINS: It is pretty amazing. If you’re a lawyer and you’re going to present the case to the “jury,” the first thing you don’t do is go insult them and actually make a case in which they are turned off by what you’re saying.

But it is not a shock, because here’s what happened with the House managers. The reason they did it, number one, is the president is not guilty. He did nothing wrong. The facts and the truth are on the president’s side, and the House managers know that.

We knew that coming over from the House.

Number two, we knew it was a political impeachment, because when they actually looked at it from the perspective of what do they want to do, they didn’t want to go to court, they didn’t want to take the witnesses, they didn’t want to do the due diligence that they should have done in the House. So it was a political impeachment.

So, what are you left with? Well, I guess we’re left with it. Let’s see if we can shame the Senate into doing our job for us.

But I think it backfired on them, especially when Chairman Nadler said that, if you don’t agree with me, then you’re – then you’re basically – you’re corrupt, that you’re hiding something.

That just should show the American people in a clear form that the House managers have nothing on this president, except smear, innuendo, and an election in 2020 in mind.

BARTIROMO: Well, Adam Schiff got choked up toward the end of his closing arguments. And then you had Nadler calling Trump a dictator who needed to be removed.

COLLINS: It is amazing that Chairman Nadler has just been so obsessed really with this president and trying to impeach this president. He ran on it to become the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, because he wanted to – just wanted to impeach the president.

But Adam Schiff getting emotional is a little bit farcical to me. Here’s the same man who is the – if you want to talk about witnesses, he’s the number one fact witness. He should have been called. He had contact with the whistleblower.

And claiming that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is or anything else is really too much. But for him to get emotional, he shouldn’t be emotional about the tragedy he put this country through the fall of this past year to attack this president.

If he wants to get emotional about something, get emotional about the fact that you have smeared a president who has done his job and put America first, and put us in a position of world leadership, not the tearing down politically that you have tried to do to him.

BARTIROMO: Well, that’s a good point, because this is what I referred to earlier with Senator Graham. And that is that there is a transcript of the inspector general, who was one of the witnesses in the House, that we have not seen. And I know that Congressman Ratcliffe is going to talk about that as well.

Why hasn’t that transcript been released?

COLLINS: Well, that’s a great question for Adam Schiff. It’s a great question to understand, how did the House managers – how did the House send over documents and begin this impeachment when they’re actually still in violation of their own resolution, which, by the way, was set up after the fact?

I think the House – the president’s lawyers did a great job yesterday of showing how the sham impeachment started by Nancy Pelosi just deeming it to happen had to be corrected, when they passed House Resolution 660 almost a month-and-a-half later.

This just goes to show that they’re still in violation of their own rules. It is just an onerous attack by Democrats who had only one thing in mind. Let’s impeach the president.

Remember Nancy Pelosi’s words. He’s impeached for life. He will never get rid of this. That sounds more like somebody on a vendetta to smear somebody than it is to actually find truth, because the truth is, he did nothing wrong.

BARTIROMO: And Ted Cruz on this program last weekend said he will be acquitted for life, by the way. That was from Senator Cruz.

Let me ask you about where this is going. How does Monday, tomorrow, play out? And do you have any sense of what your colleagues in the Senate on the Democrat side are feeling here, because there is some suggestion that at least three Democrat senators perhaps will vote to acquit the president?

COLLINS: Well, if they honestly look at the evidence, that’s what they should do.

There should be more than three on the Democratic side. But partisan politics is always at play here. I think what we have seen – and it’s just amazing – that, once they made their case, they used – as Senator Graham said earlier, they pick and choose facts that they wanted to use.

We saw this all throughout the House process. And every time that we would bring up the witnesses, the fact that there was no firsthand witnesses that actually said the president did anything wrong, even Sondland, who is their main witness, who said – he admitted that it was his presumption, when they – this could have all been stopped with one thing.

And the president is fond of saying this, but that’s also something that is very true. If Nancy Pelosi had waited one day, Speaker Pelosi had waited one day, and read the transcript – just read the transcript. There’s nothing wrong here.

They got their money. There was no pressure. And for the Democrats to continue to tear down President Zelensky and to try and tear down President Trump over this is just a shameful act.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, we will continue following this. We so appreciate your insights on this very important matter, Congressman Doug Collins joining us. We will see you soon, sir.

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