The main bone of contention between the Democrats and Republicans at this juncture seems to be just how this latest incarnation of the impeachment “inquiry” is being conducted.
Early in the process, before being goaded into voting on a rules “resolution”, the Democrats were simply holding impeachment hearings in secret, denying the media access to any information that the progressives themselves didn’t deem worthy of airtime. This set the stage, and gave the pro-impeachment crowd a mighty head start on convincing the American people of Trump’s alleged sins.
Now, the left is pushing to limit the hearings to subjects only approved by House Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. This has sent Senator Lindsey Graham over the edge.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) insisted on Sunday that the impeachment inquiry would be “invalid” and “a complete joke” without testimony from the anonymous “whistleblower” who triggered the probe and from Hunter Biden, whose work in Ukraine is at the center of the investigation.
“If they don’t call the whistleblower [to testify] in the House, this thing is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Graham warned on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Features, adding:
I consider any impeachment in the House that doesn’t allow us to know who the whistleblower is to be invalid because, without the whistleblower complaint, we wouldn’t be talking about any of this. I also see the need for Hunter Biden to be called to adequately defend the president and if you don’t do those two things, it’s a complete joke.
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It’s impossible to bring this case forward in my view fairly without us knowing who the whistleblower is and having a chance to cross-examine them about any biases they may have.
Graham has long been an opponent of the left’s push to impeach Donald Trump, and will certainly be one of the leading voices against indicting the President when the entire process heads to the Republican-controlled senate.
