Following Tuesday’s devastating House testimony by acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor about President Trump allegedly coercing the Ukrainian president to do his political bidding, former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker defended the president by claiming “abuse of power is not a crime.”
With House Democrats reportedly looking to focus their impeachment inquiry on a basic “abuse of power” narrative going forward, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham brought Whitaker on her primetime show Tuesday night to provide a counter-argument.
Predicting Republican “payback” in the future if Democrats are successful in impeaching and removing the president, Whitaker went on to complain about the “secret testimony” in the House hearings before claiming that it is too close to the 2020 election for impeachment.
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“It’s corrosive and yet those that are perpetrating it cast themselves as the white knights,” Ingraham replied, seemingly referring to Taylor, among others. “They are saving the republic from the man whose policies they disagree with so vehemently.”
Whitaker, meanwhile, blasted the “global elitists and careerists” who are upset with Trump for “upsetting the apple cart” of the “world establishment,” claiming Trump is “being punished for this.” He then called on Democrats to hold public hearings to make their case for impeachment.
“I’m a former prosecutor and what I know is this is a perfect time for preliminary hearings where you would say show us your evidence,” Whitaker stated. “What evidence of a crime do you have? So the Constitution—abuse of power is not a crime.”
“Let’s fundamentally boil it down,” he added. “The Constitution is very clear that there has to be some pretty egregious behavior and they cannot tell the American people what this case is even about.”
The articles of impeachment against former President Bill Clinton specifically laid out gross abuse of presidential power charges. Richard Nixon was also looking at three articles of impeachment—one of which was for abuse of power—before he resigned as president.
