Trump Says He Will 'Strongly Consider' Testifying in Impeachment Hearing
President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that he may be willing to offer written testimony to the House impeachment inquiry after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited him to testify.
On Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS, Pelosi said that “the president could come right before the committee and speak all the truth that he wants if he wants to take the oath of office.”
The speaker likely meant that Trump could testify under oath, since he took the oath of office during his inauguration in January 2017.
“You don’t expect him to do that,” host Margaret Brennan interjected.
“Or he could do it in writing,” Pelosi said. “He has every opportunity to present his case.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi invites Trump to testify at the impeachment hearings. pic.twitter.com/qWZQSAZ9Mx
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) November 17, 2019
The president and his supporters have repeatedly raised due process concerns about the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry, which is being overseen by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California.
Unlike in past impeachment proceedings, the president has not been allowed to have counsel present to question the witnesses who are testifying or call his own witnesses in his defense.
According to the Senate Historical Office, only a handful of presidents have testified before Congress. Never has a president testified during an impeachment proceeding.
“Our Crazy, Do Nothing (where’s USMCA, infrastructure, lower drug pricing & much more?) Speaker of the House, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, who is petrified by her Radical Left knowing she will soon be gone (they & Fake News Media are her BOSS), suggested on Sunday’s DEFACE THE NATION that I testify about the phony Impeachment Witch Hunt,” Trump tweeted on Monday.
….that I testify about the phony Impeachment Witch Hunt. She also said I could do it in writing. Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2019
“She also said I could do it in writing. Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!”
Former assistant U.S. attorney and current Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy said there is “zero chance” Trump will testify before Congress in person — and that he should not.
He argued on Fox on Monday morning that “it’s inappropriate” for Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to even float the idea.
“They know they can’t call the president in to testify, and when they say that he should come in to testify they know what they’re doing is wrong,” McCarthy said.
The former federal prosecutor pointed out that the Constitution establishes three separate branches of government with their own boundaries of power.
Some of the founders’ greatest worries are currently playing out, according to McCarthy, including their concern that impeachment could be used for purely partisan purposes and that one branch would take onto itself power it does not have.
“I would say this: If a president of the United States were ever to testify in a proceeding, it would need to be, for his sake and for the sake of the office, a proceeding that was more like a court where you could be satisfied that there was an impartial fact-finder,” McCarthy said.
“This thing that’s going on in the House right now is a very partisan proceeding that has no due process protections for the president,” he added. “I think it would be a mistake to go into that.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
