Brit Hume countered an argument by Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano who said Republicans have themselves to thank for the impeachment rules they are denouncing.
The Fox News senior political analyst took issue with Napolitano’s claim that Republicans are to blame for the current rules on impeachment, as he was asserting during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
(Video: Fox News)
Napolitano essentially blamed former House Speaker John Boehner for the current House rules which Republicans are decrying that allow closed-door hearings in impeachment proceedings.
“I read the House rules,” Napolitano said.
“And as frustrating as it may be to have these hearings going on behind closed doors, the hearings for which Congressman Schiff is presiding, they are consistent with the rules,” he added, pointing to House Republicans in 2015 who made the changes when they were in the majority during the Obama administration.
“They can’t change the rules. They follow the rules. And when were the rules written last? In January of 2015. And who signed them? John Boehner. And who enacted them? A Republican majority,” Napolitano explained.
He further argued that closed-door interviews are consistent with the rules since what is transpiring now is not actually the impeachment hearings.
“I know this is going to sound weird. These are not the impeachment hearings. The impeachment hearings have to be held in public by the House Judiciary Committee,” he said. “This is the initial interview of witnesses to see what they have to say, to determine whether or not they are even worthy of presenting evidence of impeachment.”
But Hume soon punched a hole in his Fox News colleague’s narrative, citing Boehner himself in the fact-check.
“I just spoke to John Boehner who told me that the only rules change he made was to allow committee chairmen to issue subpoenas on their own authority without committee votes,” he tweeted, adding that “no changes” were made to impeachment rules as Napolitano claimed.
I just spoke to John Boehner who told me that the only rules change he made was to allow committee chairmen to issue subpoenas on their own authority without committee votes. He says he made no changes to rules governing conduct of impeachment hearings. https://t.co/RhX8fUrt6D
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 24, 2019
He drove home the point on Napolitano’s fake news with another tweet a few minutes later.
Unclear what my friend Andrew is talking about here, but Boehner just told me the only change he made to house rules was one allowing committee chairmen/women to issue subpoenas on their authorty alone, without committee votes. No changes made, he said, to rules on impeachment. https://t.co/8KXheLfFHv
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 24, 2019
Hume’s tweet was confirmed with a direct response from Boehner, the former Ohio Republican who served as speaker from 2011 to 2015.
Correct. https://t.co/QPchfUmmVD
— John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) October 24, 2019
Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a resolution in the Senate Thursday condemning the “illegitimate” impeachment proceedings that have not been formally voted on. His announcement followed a move by frustrated House Republicans who stormed a closed-door hearing by House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight Committees in protest of the way Chairman Adam Schiff has been conducting the proceedings.
Hume continued to clarify Boehner’s 2015 actions and call out Napolitano’s “facts” in further discussions on Twitter.
He said the rules were written in 2015.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 24, 2019
Presumably the Democrats adopted a set of rules at the start of this Congress, which would make what was adopted under Boehner irrelevant to this discussion.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 24, 2019
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