The House Judiciary Committee didn’t waste any time getting partisan, as both Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Ranking Member Doug Collins (R-Ga.) used their opening statements to state their respective party’s position on impeachment.
As Nadler opened, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) asked for a motion to include a minority hearing.
Nadler gaveled him down — then passed the buck. Nadler went on to charge President Donald Trump with a “cover up” — using a Watergate trope — he pulled out again the failed Russian collusion narrative, and said Trump’s obstruction of justice was “without precedent.”
Nadler’s grasp of history is light, as he seems to forget the numerous administrations including Lincoln, Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and Obama — who ran roughshod over laws and the Constitution when it suited their purposes.
He also said the president is now “demanding foreign influence” in the 2020 election.
Did he quote the president in the demand? No. Nadler just made it up.
He also took from thin air the belief of the Founders that the greatest threat to the new republic was foreign influence of our elections.
Oh, sure. These men were in the midst of starting a country and a government from scratch.
But their most pressing problem, not fiscal or organizational, was British or French chicanery in our elections?
There is absolutely no historical basis for this assertion. None.
But that small factor usually doesn’t stop Democrats from asserting fantasies like it.
In essence, Nadler has doubled down on the falling fast Dem line on impeachment.
Since Nadler and the Dems know this is not working with the public, there must be another reason to continue this line of reasoning.
It is likely the pound of political flesh the hard Left is demanding from their party in the House.
Nadler is supposed to be running a fair hearing.
But he and the Dems have obviously made up their minds prior to the hearing.
That’s the reason Nadler has already started gagging any GOP objection — and likely will continue to do so.
Then Collins took over with his opening statement.
In an unusually fast-talking presentation, only to be outdone soon by Professor Pamela Karlan of Stanford University, Collins quoted Nadler’s objections to the Clinton impeachment.
In an interesting backstory that LifeZette covered earlier today, Collins, it appears, is using his time to audition for a Georgia U.S. Senate seat that was given instead this morning to another person by appointment.
Collins, however, called the impeachment push against Trump a “railroad job.”
He went on to say the motivation for this effort were the “tears in Brooklyn” on election night of November 2016.
Collins also called for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to appear before the Judiciary Committee.
The motion was tabled, as were others, on a party line vote.
The hearing will continue all day long.
Today’s witnesses are all law professors.
Three out of the four favor the impeachment of Trump.
One, Professor Karlan, a noted and very partisan academic, should further drive down Dem poll numbers by her rabid pro-impeachment views.
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