President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans in Washington have long complained that the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry has largely consisted of closed-door hearings, information about which only surfaces in what has been called “selective leaks” that always seem to make the president look bad. But according to Fox News host Chris Wallace, Republicans are being hypocritical about this.
In a combative interview with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday, Wallace pointed out that the Republicans’ investigation into the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya also took place behind closed doors. “Why is it OK for Republicans to do it, but not Democrats?” he asked, according to the Washington Examiner.
“Why is it OK for Republicans?”
It was Conway who first brought up the controversy over the Democrats’ closed-door impeachment hearings, which are being led in large part by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA). But as soon as she brought up that term, Wallace came in with a clearly prepared talking point.
“You brought up the closed-doors, so let me ask you about that,” Wallace said to Conway. “The president complains about the House conducting the investigation behind closed doors so far. But when Republicans had control of the House in 2017 and ’18, they conducted the investigation about Russia and interference in 2016 behind closed-doors,” he pointed out.
The Fox host went on: “When Republicans did the Benghazi investigation, they conducted it behind-closed-doors.”
With that, Wallace had made his case. “So why is it OK for Republicans, when they’re in charge, to conduct hearings, depositions, [and] interviews behind-closed-doors, but it’s unacceptable for Democrats?” Wallace pressed Conway. “Why is it OK for Republicans to do it, but not Democrats?”
“There is no analogy”
For her part, Conway admitted that the Benghazi investigation was “extremely important,” but pushed back on Wallace’s claim that the same logic can be applied in this situation.
“Chris, the president of the United States has [had] no due process rights afforded to him in this whole process,” she said. “And I’m told by our lawyers internally…that there’ll be three rounds [of hearings]…until the president’s lawyers can actually cross-examine or present evidence or challenge evidence.”
According to Conway, “this is not the way that our rule of law, our system of justice, should work for the president or for anyone else.”
“And respectfully,” she told Wallace, “I think there is no analogy to the ultimate result here, the ultimate goal here, which is to impeach a president and remove him from office, as opposed to any other type of congressional hearing.
“This is an extraordinary event that should be undertaken in the most extraordinary proven circumstances, and we’re nowhere near that,” she added.
Indeed, there’s a big difference between an inquiry into potential governmental negligence that resulted in the deaths of four Americans and a wholly partisan effort to unseat a duly-elected president simply because his opponents dislike his policies and mannerisms. Make no mistake: that’s really what this impeachment thing boils down to — and Chris Wallace should be smart enough to recognize that.
Take a look at a clip of Wallace’s talk with Conway, courtesy of the Washington Examiner:
Reviewed by The News on Donal Trump
on
November 04, 2019
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