Nadler denies flipping his stance on ‘narrowly voted’ impeachments

The 1998 Jerry Nadler (D-NY) would like to have a few words with the current chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — not that he’s listening.

Back when Republicans were impeaching Bill Clinton, Nadler warned that a “narrowly voted,” partisan impeachment effort would lack “legitimacy” and “produce divisiveness and bitterness in our politics for years to come.” But fast forward to 2019, and Nadler denies ever saying those words — even after CNN’s Dana Bash played video and read them aloud back to him.

Cognitive dissonance

The Democrats are nothing if not impervious to the reproof of fact, as Nadler showed in an amazing display of cognitive dissonance on CNN. In a rare moment of pushback from the liberal media, Bash pressed Nadler on his support of President Donald Trump’s ouster, despite his past criticism of impeachments that lack bipartisan support.

After Bash played video of a 1990s Nadler angrily accusing Republicans of putting party above country, the Democrat swiftly deflected any ownership of his words. Instead, Nadler turned things around by making it all about Donald Trump and the “divisiveness” he supposedly brought into politics for the first time in American history.

“No, what I think puts bitterness and divisiveness into our politics is the conduct of the president, who questions the patriotism of people who don’t agree with him, who calls political opponents human scum, who talks about the fake press, who derides the judiciary, who attacks all of our democratic institutions,” Nadler said, according to the Washington Examiner.

Nadler cited a poll that showed 70% of Americans think that Trump did something wrong — despite that same poll only showing 51% support for the president’s impeachment and removal, according to the Examiner. That is consistent with a lack of bipartisan support in numerous polls, despite weeks of Democrat-led investigations and public hearings.

Patriots or partisans?

For her part, Bash went on to press Nadler on whether he would insist on pushing forward without Republican opposition, to which he deflected again, accusing Republicans of putting party before country.

“If we are going to impeach the president, we’ll impeach him on adequate urgent grounds to defend our democratic republic,” he said. “It is up to them [Republicans] if they want to be patriots or partisans.”

Take a look at a clip of the exchange, courtesy of the Daily Caller:

“Bang the gavel harder”

Despite his own past comments and united Republican opposition, Nadler is pressing forward toward possible impeachment articles this week — over the objections of Republicans in the minority. According to Reuters, Nadler shot down on Monday eight “irrelevant” witnesses requested by Republicans, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), as Nadler’s panel reconvened for another “hearing” — possibly the last before the committee votes on articles of impeachment.

In a sign of how “narrowly voted” the impeachment is, the hearing quickly devolved into a shouting match as Republicans aired complaints about the rules. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) challenged Nadler to “bang the gavel harder” as the chairman grew frustrated with the opposition, USA Today noted.

But Nadler is far from the only Democrat to flip. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that Republicans were “paralyzed with hatred” of Clinton in 1998, Fox News reports, but she angrily rejected the idea that she “hates” Donald Trump in a testy exchange with a reporter last week, just moments after mawkishly declaring that Democrats would “prayerfully” proceed.

Indeed, it seems Dems have no interest in recognizing their own hypocrisy. Their eyes are all on Trump — and they won’t stop going after him until he’s out of the White House.