House Intelligence Ranking Member, Devin Nunes (R-CA), during his opening Wednesday, ripped House Intel Chairman, Adam Schiff (D-CA), Democrats, and the media for their orchestrated “scorched earth war” against President Trump.
The first public hearing Wednesday, testimony will be heard from State Department official George Kent and top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor.
Rep. Nunes began his opening statement explaining that Democrats engaged in a “last-ditch effort” following the release of the Mueller report, to convince the American people that President Trump is a “Russian agent”, adding, “That hearing was the pitiful finale of a three-year-long operation by the Democrats, the corrupt media, and partisan bureaucrats to overturn the results of the 2016 [presidential] election.”
Nunes noted after the “spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax”, on July 24, one day later, July 25, Democrats “turned on a dime” and now claim the real malfeasance is Republican’s dealings with Ukraine. “In the blink of an eye, we’re asked to simply forget about Democrats on this committee falsely claiming that they had more than circumstantial evidence of collusion between President Trump and Russians. We should forget about them reading fabrications of Trump Russia collusion from the Steele dossier into the congressional record. We should also forget about them trying to obtain nude pictures of Trump from Russian pranksters, who pretended to be Ukranian officials ” Nunes explained.
“We should forget about them leaking a false story to CNN, while he was still testifying to our committee claiming that Donald Trump Jr. was colluding with WikiLeaks,” Nunes continued referring to Adam Schiff. “And forget about other countless deceptions large and small that make them the last people on earth with the credibility to hurl more preposterous accusations at their political opponents.”
“And here we are now, we’re supposed to take these people at face value when they trout out a new batch of allegations. But anyone familiar with the Democrats scorched earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a ‘carefully orchestrated media smear campaign,'” the Intel Ranking Member said. (Continued Below)
Nunes listed examples as to why it is a smear campaign: “After vowing publicly impeachment requires bipartisan support, Democrats are pushing impeachment forward without the backing of a single Republican,” he said. “The witnesses deemed suitable for television by the democrats after they were put through a closed-door audition process in a ‘cult-like atmosphere’ in the basement of the capitol, where democrats conducted secret depositions– released a flood of misleading and one-sided leaks and later, selectively released transcripts in a highly staged manner.”
He also noted that Democrats violated their own guidelines and redacted the name of “Alexander Chalupa”, a contractor for the Democrat National Committee, who worked with Ukrainian officials to collect dirt on the Trump campaign. She provided the information to the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Nunes said that Schiff rejected “most” of the Republicans witness requests, “resulting in a horrifically one-sided process, where the crucial witnesses are denied a platform if their testimony does not support the Democrats’ absurd accusations.” (Continued Below)
The House Intel Ranking Member went on to say, “Notably, they are trying to impeach the president about inquiring about Hunter Biden’s activities. Yet, they refuse our requests to hear from Biden himself.”
Then, he slammed the whistleblower and his lawyer: “The whistleblower was acknowledged to have a bias against President Trump and his attorney touted a ‘coup’ against the president and called for his impeachment after the election.”
Nunes also pointed out that Adam Schiff “read out a purely fictitious rendition of the President’s phone call with President Zelensky. “They find the real conversation to be insufficient for their impeachment narrative, so they just made up a new one. And most egregiously, the staff of the Democrats on this committee had direct discussions with the whistleblower before his or her complaint was submitted to the Inspector General.”
He said that Republicans can’t get a full account of the contacts because Democrats “broke their promise” to have the whistleblower testify to the committee. “Democrat members hid these contacts from Republicans and then lied about them to the American people on national television.”
Nunes also said that Democrats have a long habit of accusing Republicans of offenses they themselves are committing. “Let’s recall, for years they accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia when they themselves were colluding with Russia by funding and spreading the Steele dossier, which relied on Russian sources. And now, they accuse President Trump of malfeasance in Ukraine, when they themselves are culpable. The Democrats cooperated in Ukraine election meddling, and they defend Hunter Biden’s securing of a lavishly paid position with a corrupt Ukranian company–all while his father served as vice president.” (Continued Below)
After listing Democrats’ hypocrisy, he said they are advancing their “impeachment sham”, but noted that no hearings should be held until they get answers to three crucial questions the Democrats are determined to avoid asking.
- What is the full extent of the Democrat’s prior coordination with the whistleblower? And who else did the whistleblower coordinate this effort with?
- What is the full extent of Ukraine’s election meddling against the Trump campaign?
- Why did Burisma hire Hunter Biden? And what did he do for them? And did his position effect any U.S. government actions under the Obama administration?
“These questions will remain outstanding because Republicans were denied to call witnesses that know these answers,” Nunes said.
“What we will witness today is televised theatrical performance, staged by the Democrats. Ambassador Taylor and Mr. Kent, I’d like to welcome you here. I’d like to congratulate you for passing the Democrats ‘star chamber’s auditions’ held for the last weeks in the basement of the Capitol. It seems you agreed willing or unwillingly to participate in a drama. But the main performance, the Russia hoax has ended. And you’ve been cast in the ‘low rent Ukranian sequel,'” he continued.
He concluded by noting that President Trump expressed skepticism of foreign aid and foreign corruption on the campaign trail, President Trump outraged the bureaucracy by “acting skeptically about foreign aid and expressing concerns about foreign corruption,” adding that officials information was based on secondhand, thirdhand, and even fourth-hand rumors and innuendo. (Video Below)
“They believe it was an outrage for a president to fire an ambassador, even though the president has full authority to retain or remove diplomats for any reason at any time. Officials show the surprising lack of interest of indications Ukrainian election meddling that deeply concerned the president, at whose pleasure they serve. Despite all their dissatisfaction with President Trump’s Ukraine policy, the president approved the supply of weapons to Ukraine, unlike the previous administration, which provided blankets in defense against invading Russians. By undermining the president, who they are supposed to be serving, the elements of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and now, the State Department have lost the confidence of millions of Americans who believe that their vote should count for something. It will take years, if not decades to restore faith in these institutions,” Nunes explained.
This spectacle is doing great damage to our country. It’s nothing more than an impeachment process ‘in search of a crime,” Nunes said as he ended his opening statement.
Rep. Devin Nunes’ full remarks:
(Related: Ahead Of The Public Hearings, Schiff Warns Committee Members Not To Talk About The Whistleblower)
