Rep. Kevin McCarthy slammed the secrecy surrounding Democrats’ impeachment inquiry but revealed that his Republican colleague was able to “destroy” the latest witness testimony.
The Republican House Minority Leader told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he was not able to share details from Tuesday’s closed-door session due to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, but did note that testimony from Ukrainian Envoy William Taylor was quickly dismantled by a GOP lawmaker.
(Video: Fox News)
“In 90 seconds, we had John Ratcliffe destroy Taylor’s whole argument,” McCarthy said on “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday, referring to the Texas Republican who is a member of both the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
“They go out to the press and say ‘Taylor, it was terrible’ and Adam Schiff won’t let us talk about what happened,” he added, referring to Tuesday’s closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill. “We can’t really talk about it.”
“What we’re finding is that just his questioning in 90 seconds refuted everything of what Adam Schiff leaves out there; there is no quid pro quo.”
Following Taylor’s testimony, reports emerged that he had provided damning evidence for the impeachment inquiry by suggesting that President Trump had tied military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Dems flaunt Taylor testimony as game-changer, Unfazed White House calls it nonsense https://t.co/whoPpRgRb5
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) October 23, 2019
But McCarthy argued that those reports themselves were the result of leaks coming from Schiff himself, as he revealed that GOP lawmakers were not being allowed to even view information from the hearings without supervision.
“What happened in the Intel committee, even the members cannot read any information unless one of Adam Schiff’s own staffers are in the room next to them,” the GOP lawmaker told Ingraham.
“And if we’re wondering who that anonymous person, right, I bet it’s Adam Schiff,” he said. “And he won’t release anything that’s said to them.”
“The one thing that you find out in this process is all this information is just like that whistleblower … everything is second, third, and fourth-hand information,” McCarthy added.
“What they are doing [is] they are changing every rule we ever had,” he said.
Trump’s director of communications for his 2020 campaign slammed Taylor’s statement as “predictably & selectively leaked by Democrats.”
The Bill Taylor statement was predictably & selectively leaked by Democrats from their secret impeachment bunker.
It underscores the illegitimacy of their whole process, all done behind closed doors.
This is double and triple hearsay.
Once again, there was no quid pro quo.
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 22, 2019
While Democrats hailed it as the smoking gun in their impeachment efforts, others refuted the idea. Rep. Mark Meadows assured reporters there was “no quid pro quo.”
Rep. Mark Meadows exits Bill Taylor testimony: “I’ve been in there for 10 hours. I can assure you there was no quid pro quo.” pic.twitter.com/M1g62vje4r
— The Hill (@thehill) October 23, 2019
The president slammed the “Do Nothing Dems” and their “dead” case against him on Wednesday, quoting Ratcliffe’s remarks about the absence of any corruption in Trump’s July call with the Ukrainian president.
Neither he (Taylor) or any other witness has provided testimony that the Ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld. You can’t have a quid pro quo with no quo.” Congressman John Ratcliffe @foxandfriends Where is the Whistleblower? The Do Nothing Dems case is DEAD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2019
McCarthy’s remarks Tuesday echoed those of Rep. Devin Nunes who told Fox News host Sean Hannity: “The truth is, in two minutes, John Ratcliffe destroyed this witness. There is no quid pro quo”
Despite headlines from William Taylor’s opening statement, @DevinNunes says @RepRatcliffe “destroyed” him during the closed-door deposition.
“The truth is, in two minutes, John Ratcliffe destroyed this witness. There is no quid pro quo.”
https://t.co/zUFxKT426d pic.twitter.com/0hJJKv3XPx— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 23, 2019
“I found [Taylor] to be very forthright. He had very strong opinions about Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy,” Ratcliffe said on Fox News earlier Tuesday. “But again, the mainstream media reporting that he provided evidence of a quid pro quo involving military aid is false. I questioned him directly on that. And under Adam Schiff’s rules, I can’t tell you what he said, but I can tell you what he didn’t say. And neither he or any other witness has provided testimony that the Ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld. You can’t have a quid pro quo with no quo.”
(Video: YouTube/Fox News)
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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