House Judiciary Republicans Want to Call Adam Schiff to Testify

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee said that he intends to call Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to testify when the new phase of the impeachment inquiry starts up this week. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) said it is important for Schiff, the head of the House Intelligence Committee, to come before Congress and defend his report recommending articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. If he’s unwilling to do so, Collins said, then it will say something about the integrity of the report.

“My first and foremost witness is Adam Schiff,” Collins said. “If he chooses not to, then I really question his veracity and what he’s putting in his report. I question the motive of why he’s doing it.”

Collins said it was particularly important for Schiff to explain his relationship with the whistleblower who kicked off the Ukraine scandal, tell the Judiciary Committee when he first met with the whistleblower, and expound on his own dealings with the Ukrainian government.

Turning from Schiff, Collins decried the continued unfairness of the impeachment inquiry.

“Chairman Nadler sent a letter asking us by Friday to present this list and present all the things that we would like to do. However, we’re not going to see the Schiff report, as it is going to be known, out of committee until Tuesday night, possibly Wednesday morning before we get to see it,” he said. “As an attorney, if you have a case going forward you want to know exactly what you’re facing.”

Wednesday’s opening hearing will involve a panel of so-called legal and constitutional scholars, each of whom will undoubtedly tell Democrats what they want to hear – that Trump is a terrible criminal who deserves to be buried underneath the jail, etc. Collins said it was another sign of the unfairness and bias of the inquiry that Republicans would only get to call one witness as opposed to the three called by Democrats.

“Why are we doing this on a normal 3:1 ratio?” Collins asked. “If it’s so important like we did with Clinton where we had almost four times as many of these witnesses, why don’t at least get two for two? Why don’t we at least have more witnesses in this process?”

Oh, call on us, call on us! It’s because Jerry Nadler and the Democrats have absolutely no interest in determining whether or not what Trump did rises to the level of impeachment. They’ve already decided that. This is a public show conjured up to give the nightly news hosts something to play on their broadcasts Wednesday night. This is a bit of theater intended to impart some thin layer of legitimacy to what has been one of the most partisan processes in the history of Washington.

The White House announced Sunday that they would have no part of these hearings, and that was the right call. Let Democrats have their fun. After all, next year at this time, they’re going to be in a much (much) worse mood.