Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has earned a reputation as a guy who enjoys shaking things up on Capitol Hill, attempted to attend a deposition on Monday related to the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and promptly got booted out by the Democrat-run committees who say he had no business being there. His exclusion from the deposition, Gaetz says, is yet more proof that House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) is simultaneously running a “kangaroo court” and a “clown show” propped up by his “lies.”
As reported by multiple outlets, including The Hill, Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, tried to sit in on the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees’ closed-door interview with Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia aide, Monday but was blocked from attending because he is not a member of one of the three committees conducting the inquiry — a decision the House parliamentarian reportedly stood by.
After his thwarted attempt to peek behind the curtains of the Democrats’ impeachment efforts, Gaetz turned to the cameras and social media to voice his disgust with Schiff and his fellow House Democrats’ “charade.”
“So this morning we see further evidence that Adam Schiff’s clown show of an impeachment proceeding continues,” Gaetz told the press in video posted by The Hill (below). “Adam Schiff lied when he said that he and his team had not had contact with the whistleblower. He lied when he read a false transcript into the record as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.”
“Today, when the Intelligence Committee and other committees were meeting to examine witnesses, I appeared just to participate, just to observe as a member of Congress, as a member of the Judiciary Committee,” Gaetz said. “Traditionally the Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over impeachment. If Adam Schiff and House Democrats were so proud of their work, they would be willing to show it. Consistently, Republicans have come out of each and every one of these depositions and we’ve sought for a release of the transcript — for the American people to see more. So I guess the question is: Why is Adam Schiff trying to run a kangaroo court? Why is he continuing to limit access to evidence, limit access even from members of Congress?”
Video below via The Hill:
Rep. @mattgaetz: “This morning we see further evidence that Adam Schiff’s clown show of an impeachment proceeding continues. Adam Schiff lied when he said that he & his team had not had contact with the whistleblower. He lied when he read a false transcript into the record.” pic.twitter.com/5QRqCiWbGC
— The Hill (@thehill) October 14, 2019
Rep. @mattgaetz: “I appeared just to participate, just to observe as a member of Congress, as a member of the Judiciary Committee… Why is Adam Schiff trying to run a kangaroo court? Why is he continuing to limit access to evidence, limit access even from members of Congress?” pic.twitter.com/J67OYnk9L7
— The Hill (@thehill) October 14, 2019
Law and Crime notes that in defending his presence at the hearing, Gaetz argued that the chairman of the committee on which Gaetz’ sits, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), “claimed to have begun an impeachment inquiry before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) backed one and before the three other committees got involved.”
“Chairman Schiff and the radical [D]emocrats are now active participants in the coup,” Gaetz tweeted in response to being barred from the deposition. “To exclude Members of Congress from hearings confirms the American people’s suspicions: this is not a legitimate ‘impeachment inquiry’ — it is a charade.”
“Chairman Schiff and Speaker Pelosi are equally complicit in hiding and obfuscating the truth,” he added in a follow-up post. “Blocking Members of Congress from attending ‘impeachment'” hearings is not only unfair, it runs counter to our Democracy.
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