Donald Trump Impeachment Probe Is ‘Complete American Waste Of Time,’ Says Republican Congressman
While some Democrats are hopeful that the impeachment probe into Donald Trump will lead to his removal from office, others believe it’s unlikely that the Senate trial will lead to such an outcome and suggest the inquiry is a waste of time. Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins appears to be in the latter camp.
During an interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, Collins was pressed about whether the White House counsel will participate in the scheduled Wednesday impeachment hearings and defend the president, Newsweek reports.
“I think we’re still looking at that, but I have a question for you Chris: why would they want to participate in just another rerun? We’re back here again by the way in rerun season here in the Judiciary Committee. We’ve already had constitutional scholars in the committee talking about the Mueller report and others [asking], ‘Is there an impeachable offense?’ This is a complete American waste of time right here.”
As The Inquisitr reported, Collins wrote a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on Saturday demanding more Republican-backed constitutional scholars at the upcoming hearing in addition to the four legal experts currently on the schedule. According to Collins, the request aims to ensure “fairness” and “restore integrity” to the impeachment probe into Trump. Collins also claimed the ratio of scholars in favor of impeaching Trump to those opposed was 3 to 1, and added that there was more than four times the number of witnesses during the impeachment hearings into former President Bill Clinton.
Will White House counsel participate in the impeachment inquiry to mount a defense of the president? Rep Doug Collins, ranking member of the Judiciary committee, reacts: "this is a complete American waste of time right here." #FNS #FoxNews #Impeachment pic.twitter.com/X9gi5wpwVp
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) December 1, 2019
Speaking to Wallace, Collins suggested that Nadler and the rest of the top Democrats have made up their mind on impeachment, pointing to the fact that they are reportedly in the process of penning articles of impeachment.
Collins also pushed a prevailing theory among Republicans that addressed the purported motivations of the impeachment probe, suggesting that the inquiry is an attempt to “overturn” the outcome of the 2016 election that Trump won.
Florida Democratic Representative Val Demings recently expressed hope that Trump and his counsel would attend the hearings. She claims that such attendance would ensure that the president receives the same “privileges” as former presidents like Clinton and Richard Nixon did during the impeachment process. Demings added that the House is “anxious” to hear Trump’s explanation for his behavior if he did nothing wrong as he claims.
Nadler has set a December 6 deadline for the White House to notify Congress of its participation in the hearings. He also asked Collins about subpoenas he would like issued related to the probe.
