"With due respect, Mr. Chairman, both of today's witnesses were selected by the majority," GOP Whip Steve Scalise noted at Friday's Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing.
Rule 11 of the House of Representatives requires that the minority party get to hear from their witnesses too. So, logically, Scalise and his colleagues asked for one. That individual was denied by Chairman Jim Clyburn (D-SC).
Democrats blocked Republicans from calling a witness at today's Coronavirus Committee hearing.
— Select Committee Republicans (@SelectGOP) July 17, 2020
.@SteveScalise called them out: pic.twitter.com/XLCysGxGZ2
?? BREAKING ?? Dems blocked Republicans from calling a witness at today's Coronavirus Committee hearing—a complete violation of their own rules.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) July 17, 2020
Some things never change in Pelosi's House. Dems only have one playbook:
1) Shut down debate
2) Attack @realDonaldTrump
3) Repeat
"Because of that decision, we're also being denied the diversity of opinion that we should be getting on today's topic," Scalise reasoned, adding that it "hinders their ability to get all of the facts." He requested a "minority day" hearing where the Republicans will select the witnesses.
Democrats have been denying Republican witness requests for a while now. Last year, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) rejected the GOP's request to hear from eight additional witnesses as part of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, including House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and the whistleblower who filed the complaint against Trump. Nadler decided that there was "no need" to hear from them.
The minority whip suggested that today's debacle didn't really matter anyway, considering that the hearing itself was a "sham" that didn't even scratch the surface of what's really important as we reflect on the victims of the coronavirus.
Today House Dems held another sham hearing on Coronavirus.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) July 17, 2020
Yet they STILL refuse to investigate the thousands of nursing home deaths caused by the NY, NJ, MI, & PA governors' orders.
Why? They'd rather blame @realDonaldTrump than hold a Democrat accountable.
Despicable.
Gov. Cuomo has denied that his now rescinded nursing home mandate that forced facilities to accept COVID patients led to the deaths of thousands of nursing home residents. The New York State Department of Health released a joke of a report that concluded that the policy did not have any kind of significant impact on the number of tombstones. Scalise is one of several people who believes that a true independent investigation would find him guilty.