Congressman Mo Brooks has been one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters during his presidency and one of the Republicans most outspoken critics of Democrats’ efforts to impeach the president. On Friday, Brooks said that Democrats were seeking to impeach the president “out of lust for political power” instead of working on border security or dealing with the rising budget deficit.
“It’s sad and dangerous what Socialist Democrats, out of lust for political power, are doing to America,” Brooks said in a statement on social media. “Instead of working to secure America’s porous southern border or tackling America’s nearly $23 trillion debt to avoid a debilitating financial crisis, Socialist Democrats work non-stop in an attempt to defraud over sixty million Americans of their 2016 votes. Rather than hide in the Capitol basement, Socialist Democrats should show their faces where we can all see the travesty they are foisting on America.”
Congressman Brooks has also been critical of the secretive manner in which the Democrats are conducting the hearings on the fate of the Presidency.
“Socialist Democrats are using secretive, infamous, kangaroo court proceedings in the Capitol basement rather than public proceedings where the American people can see firsthand the impeachment railroad job being presided over by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Adam Schiff,” Brooks charged. “Socialist Democrats have produced ZERO evidence of an impeachable offense. That likely explains why the Socialist Democrats have insisted on hiding their proceedings from the public. The American people deserve a public and open process. We demand open proceedings! The American people deserve nothing less, their representatives in Congress deserve nothing less.”
National Review’s Kevin Williamson has similarly written that if Congress is to substitute its judgment for the electorate’s, then it should bring impeachment proceeding out of the Capitol closet and let the people see why.
Brooks led a protest of nearly two dozen congressional Republicans on Wednesday, who forced their way into a House Intelligence Committee hearing demanding an open impeachment process.
“It is time for Nancy Pelosi to bring the impeachment process out of the shadows, out from behind closed doors, and into the light and air, such as it is, of the people’s house, where the people may oversee it,” Williamson wrote on Thursday. “The power and the responsibility in this matter are expressly Pelosi’s in her role as speaker of the House. If you doubt for a moment that this blessed republic has entered a penitential stage in its history, then behold the fulcrum of the U.S. government’s credibility and her wan, conniving aspect. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.””
Democrats argue that the House Intelligence Committee followed the exact same rules when it investigated the Benghazi attack. Republicans argue that the two matters are not comparable. That Benghazi involved a covert CIA effort to try to remove heavy arms from Libyan society, embassy security, the Pentagon response to the attack, and ultimately into whether national security secrets of the United States were compromised by then Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton (D). Much of the Benghazi hearings dealt with classified methods and practices of covert operators and intelligence sources. Anything learned from the Benghazi investigation was referred to the FBI for further investigation. After studying the matter, then FBI Director James Comey ruled that no laws were broken and declined to seek indictments. The impeachment investigation involves a phone conversation between Trump and the President of Ukraine and hear the findings will not be forwarded to the FBI and Justice Department; but instead to the full House for a vote on whether or not to recommend removing a President of the United States.
Congressman Mo Brooks represents Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District.
