House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy railed against House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff Sunday, accusing him of single-handedly dictating the impeachment inquiry he described as a “calculated coup.”
McCarthy responded to Schiff denying House Republicans’ Saturday request to have the Ukraine whistleblower testify publicly as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Speaking Sunday morning on Fox News, McCarthy joined several Republicans in accusing Schiff of “lying to America” as part of a cold, calculated attempt to remove Trump from office. The House GOP leader called Nancy Pelosi “Speaker of the House in name only” for her inability to keep Schiff from turning the Intelligence Committee into the “Impeachment Committee.”
“It is clear now more than ever this is a calculated coup. And it is being orchestrated by Adam Schiff,” McCarthy ultimately concluded Sunday morning.
McCarthy said the reason Schiff rejected the Republican witness list and has backed off calling for the whistleblower to testify is because the California Democrat’s own backdoor conversations will be exposed. GOP Congressman Devin Nunes sent a letter Saturday demanding Hunter Biden and the anonymous whistleblower testify publicly so Trump can “confront his accusers.”
“Remember that Adam Schiff started this all by wanting the whistleblower to testify,” said McCarthy. “And now Adam Schiff gets to decide who comes forward and now he’s fighting the whistleblower from coming forward?”
Schiff recently called testimony from the whistleblower unnecessary despite repeatedly claiming they would testify “very soon” in September when the inquiry into Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine began. Nunes’ Saturday letter called or Schiff to personally address allegations of investigation abuses in a “closed-door deposition.”
“Now why is [Schiff] doing that? Is it because we found out that he met, and the staff met with him? Is it because we found out now that the whistleblower’s attorney tweeted that the coup had started? That impeachment will follow ultimately? That he predicted that CNN would play a key role?” McCarthy, a California Republican, continued.
“We are watching him orchestrate the takedown of a president after we just celebrated 30 years of taking down the Berlin Wall,” McCarthy added. “This has been orchestrated and if if this goes on longer we will find the lies, we will find how they calculate the coup, we will find more from the whistleblower’s attorney and others.”
Much like the president’s own “Shifty Schiff” moniker for the House Intel chair, McCarthy characterized Schiff as a manipulative, dictatorial leader of the entire impeachment process.
“They made the intel committee, the impeachment committee,” McCarthy said. “They controlled it even more, making Adam Schiff the fact witness, the prosecutor, the judge and the jury. He now controls who can ask questions and who can have time…The cards of this House are beginning to fall as we find more associations between Adam and his staff with the whistleblower.”
“Adam Schiff now is dictating that only the chair and the ranker and staff…he is trying to control all of this. It goes back to this is so calculated, so controlling, by one person, Adam Schiff. Who is the individual who has consistently lied to America and created greater control over the whole calculation.”
McCarthy took several swipes at the whistleblower, saying the whole investigation is based on information they didn’t even receive firsthand. “In a federal criminal trial if your case relies on an informant, you must produce the informant at trial…They must face their accuser.”
Also speaking with Fox News on Sunday morning, South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham agreed with McCarthy’s assessment that Schiff is single-handedly dominating the impeachment process as a personal vendetta against Trump.
“The whole thing is being driven by a partisan, Adam Schiff,” Graham said. “The whole thing is illegitimate if they don’t inquire about Hunter Biden.”
McCarthy concluded Sunday’s discussion by blaming Pelosi for not helping to pass the USMCA trade deal and for instead making impeachment the “only thing that is happening in Congress.”