Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led the charge into a closed door deposition led by Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Wednesday. He explained that he, along with several other Republicans, are fed up with the Democrats' secret impeachment inquiry against President Trump as they continue to shut out Republicans on other committees.
From the beginning of her interview with Gaetz on Thursday, MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson asked pointed questions about the GOP's actions yesterday. "What was the point?" of their disrupting the deposition, she wondered. "Was it a stunt?"
"The point was to highlight the true due process inequities that are damaging the Congress and the institution of the presidency," Gaetz explained. "I don’t think Democrats have answered the question yet, 'Why is President Trump getting less due process than President Clinton got or that President Nixon got?'"
Gaetz made the point that it was Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee he sits on, that launched the inquiry in the first place. The Republican said it was "bizarre" for Schiff to exclude members of the committee that led the inquiry.
"How can you tell me it's a fact my committee is not involved?" Gaetz asked Jackson. "You’re shifting ground. We are involved because our chairman launched the inquiry."
Jackson asked another leading question, "Why do the rules not apply to you?"
Gaetz argued that the rules keep changing.
"Democrats are sacrificing due process on the altar of their hatred of President Trump," he said.
"They’re humiliated they lost the Russia investigation," Gaetz mused. This is the Democrats' way "to take some folks out of the next hand" because the Republicans were so effective.
Gaetz and Jackson sparred over the Ukraine scandal and the Republican lawmaker fact-checked the MSNBC anchor once more.
“You just keep blowing through these things like they’re facts but they’re not…I have to fact check you in real time.”
“You’re playing the game here, Hallie,” he later added.
Her narrative, he observed, is "very favorable" to Adam Schiff’s theory of the case.
The Republican interruption of the closed door testimonies delayed Pentagon official Laura Cooper's testimony for several hours on Wednesday. Democrats are reportedly preparing an ethics complaint against them.
WATCH: here's the video of when 2 dozen GOP members, led by @mattgaetz entered the secure hearing room (SCIF) to interrupt witness testimony in the #ImpeachmentInquiry as they demand access, despite not being committee members. They're complaining it's a "Soviet-style process". pic.twitter.com/8KddYz3r9D
— Scott Thuman (@ScottThuman) October 23, 2019
The Democrats plan to begin public hearings by mid-November.