Georgia Republicans are bristling at what they contend is a lack of access and transparency from congressional Democrats conducting an impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.
At least three Georgians were among the GOP lawmakers who stormed a closed-door House Intelligence Committee deposition Wednesday morning.
Others have taken to social media and the well of the House in recent days to rail about elected members of Congress and the public being locked out of hearings. And all nine of the state’s U.S. House Republicans voted or voiced support for a GOP resolution earlier this week to censure Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, who's leading the impeachment investigation.
The torrent of complaints comes as Republicans adopt a more confrontational approach to the inquiry at the request of Trump.
“The whole process is ludicrous,” said U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, on Wednesday. “There’s a protocol to follow, and (Democrats are) not following any kind of protocol.”
He added: “This is not the Soviet Union. This is the United States of America.”
Carter was one of roughly two-dozen conservative Republicans who pushed their way into a secure hearing room where members of the Intelligence panel and two other committees were preparing to interview Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper earlier in the day.
The chaos prompted Schiff to stop the deposition. Many of the GOP lawmakers were carrying cell phones, which are barred in that section of the Capitol to protect classified information.
Democratic leaders have only allowed members of three committees – Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs – to attend the hearings, but they’ve granted both parties equal time to question witnesses.
Monroe Republican Jody Hice is the only Georgia lawmaker who’s been able to sit in on the hearings as a member of the Oversight panel. Still, the senior House Freedom Caucus member was among the protesters on Wednesday.
"This is the most unfair treatment, unfair process - perhaps more so than any other such process in the history of our country," he said in a video posted on Twitter. "Fortunately, some Republicans with some spine and some guts have stormed into the deposition today demanding that they have a right to hear what's happening."
Schiff has promised to release transcripts and eventually hold public hearings but said private depositions were needed during the fact-finding portion of the impeachment inquiry to prevent witnesses from coordinating their testimony. He’s cited the GOP’s handling of the Benghazi Select Committee, portions of which were also conducted behind closed doors.
The Georgia delegation broke along party lines after House Speaker Pelosi first announced the probe last month, although some Democrats have stopped short of endorsing outright impeachment at this point in the process. No lawmakers have appeared to publicly shift their positions in the weeks since.
Democrats have contended that they’re fulfilling their Constitutional duties by investigating Trump and whether he engaged in a “quid pro quo” by using foreign aid to push Ukraine’s leaders to investigate the Biden family and the 2016 election.
“I do not believe that the president is above the law,” U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, a centrist Democrat from Albany, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. The “separation of powers enumerated in the Constitution … has to be upheld and protected if our democracy is to survive.”
Local Republicans have zeroed in on the process surrounding the proceedings rather than the substance of the allegations, following the lead of GOP leaders. In addition to the closed-door nature of recent meetings, they’ve also highlighted Schiff’s dramatization of Trump’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart and Pelosi’s refusal to hold a floor vote to launch the probe.
Pelosi defended her handling of the investigation during a recent editorial board meeting at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“If we want to do it, we’ll do it. If we don’t, we don’t,” she said. “But we’re certainly not going to do it because of the president.”
Congressman Drew Ferguson of West Point, a member of the GOP leadership, said all members of Congress need access to the impeachment hearings since “we are going to be asked to take a very serious vote.”
“If Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi are so sure of their case, let’s lay it out for every member of Congress and the American people to see,” he said.
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