The Democrats have loved quoting the founders lately to try and justify their impeachment proceedings against President Trump, but GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy could play at that game too.
“Today is the day that Hamilton warned us,” he said at his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the Democrats would be moving forward on impeachment, despite the fact that all their latest hearing seemed to prove was that a few liberal professors don't like the president.
"They always had this pre-written timeline from the day they got sworn in," McCarthy said of the Democrats.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in response to Speaker Pelosi’s announcement:
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 5, 2019
“They always had this pre-written timeline from the day they got sworn in.” pic.twitter.com/K2p2c7CY4o
If you don't believe him, consider the timeline. On the day she got sworn in to Congress, McCarthy reminded the press, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (R-MI) declared, “we are going to impeach the mother – .”
He went on to quote several other members of Congress who have voiced their support for impeachment because they don't want Trump re-elected.
In other words, impeachment was “their goal from the beginning,” McCarthy noted.
Democrats may have always had their goal, but they didn't have their proof. So "they had to bring professors in" to try and make a case for them at Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing. Three of the four professors who testified had no doubt in their minds that Trump had obstructed justice in his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky and should be impeached. In the Q&A sessions that followed, they admitted that they had previously donated to Democratic campaigns and said demeaning things about conservatives. As more than one Republican on the panel noted, not one of Wednesday's witnesses were fact witnesses. Everything they said was based on presumption.
Case in point:
As @RepMattGaetz exposed, all 3 of the Democrats' witnesses have NO personal knowledge of a single material fact in the Schiff Report - and all 3 have comments or contributions in their history that call their objectivity into question.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) December 4, 2019
This is a complete sham. pic.twitter.com/sw0gYjqvKm
So, on what grounds is Speaker Pelosi basing this inquiry?
"If Speaker Pelosi would have paused and actually listened to the hearing yesterday, she probably wouldn't have made the decision she made today to try and change her own timeline," McCarthy reasoned.
Nevertheless, the Democrats have scheduled another House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing for Monday. Interestingly, that's the same day we are finally getting the IG report on FISA abuse against the Trump campaign.
Note: An earlier version of this story ran under the headline "Kevin McCarthy: This Is the 'Weakest, Thinnest Impeachment' in US History." The quote belongs to Law Professor Jonathan Turley who testified during the impeachment hearing on Wednesday. The headline has been changed and the quote has been removed.