Representative Doug Collins (R-Ga.) brought his A-game to the House judiciary committee on Thursday in his comments about Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and his decision to block appeals by the minority to hold off voting on the articles of impeachment so they could bring more witnesses to testify on behalf of the president. Republicans were only allowed one witness, law professor Jonathan Turley, who was outnumbered three to one by Democrat witnesses.
“This committee finally accomplished its goal… to impeach this president,” he said. “What will be known in 2019 outside of this fact…is that this committee has now sounded the death of minority rights in this committee.” He continued, “This committee has been nothing but a rubber stamp…they don’t care, facts be damned! They don’t care that we had one witness out of three. When I asked for a second witness I was told I couldn’t…I was told I was asking too late.”
“One witness out of two panels; that’s all we had of fact witnesses,” Collins rebuked. “This has been a travesty and a sham from day one. I could talk until I’m blue in the face but nobody on the majority cares!” Collins pointed out the clear unfairness of three witnesses agreeing that the president should be impeached to the one witness who disagreed. “They had no desire to hear any witnesses but their own trained, driven [by] clock-calendar impeachment.”
Collins went on to call the denial of the minority their witnesses a “crushing blow” to the committee. Collins says he has sent multiple letters to the chairman about violations of rules that have denied the minority Republicans their rights.
Collins shamed the Democrats who voted in favor of blocking witnesses for the Republicans. “The members who have gone before and the people who have set this committee up and the ones who set this Congress up are the ones who should be hanging their heads in shame. We had two hearings, none of which featured fact witnesses. There’s not a Democrat in this room that should be happy about this.”
He went on to mock the Democrats and their false sorrow at the “solemn nature of impeachment” they blabber about when everyone knows they’ve wanted this since election night in 2016. “The solemnity should be on the death of this committee’s process and procedures. Don’t give me the ‘solemnity of impeaching a president.’ You’ve been wanting to do that for a long time…this is what you wanted.”
Then Collins went after Chairman Nadler for failing to address abuses of process he’s been alerted about. “When it comes to the hearing, when it comes to the minority rights…I have had to write this chairman multi-page letters on the abuse of procedural issues in this committee. This is a travesty.”
PJ Media reached out to Representative Collins’s office and asked for copies of those letters. As of publishing, they have not responded.
“Write about it if you want, talk about it if you want, but the American people see it because the American people understand, inherently, fairness…When we don’t have it, nobody can have it,” Collins said.
He concluded his remarks with strong words to Democrats on the committee: “You stained this body. You’ve taken this committee and made it a rubber stamp.”
Watch below. The representative’s comments begin at 7:40
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo.” Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
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