Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz built on his reputation for being a thorn in the Democrats’ side during the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings on Wednesday. Among several moments that ended up generating some buzz online is a question Gaetz asked the expert witnesses invited to testify Wednesday that drove home a larger point that Republicans have been making all along.
“So let’s see if we can get into the fact,” said Gaetz. “To all of the witnesses: If you have personal knowledge of a single material fact in the Schiff report, please raise your hand.”
After none of the witnesses — a collection of law professors, only one of which was called by Republicans — raised their hand, Gaetz said, “And let the record reflect: no personal knowledge of a single fact.”
“To all of the witnesses: if you have personal knowledge of a single material fact in the Schiff report, please raise your hand.”
*silence*#ImpeachmentHearing #ImpeachingHearings pic.twitter.com/KPfpX6NcUg
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) December 4, 2019
The fiery congressman then got to his point: “And you know what, that continues on the tradition that we saw from [Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam Schiff. Where Ambassador [William] Taylor could not identify an impeachable offense. Mr. [George] Kent never met with the president. Fiona Hill never heard the president reference anything regarding military aid [to Ukraine], Mr. [David] Hale was unaware of any nefarious activity with aid, Colonel [Alexander] Vindman even rejected the new Democrat talking point that ‘bribery’ was invoked here. Ambassador [Kurt] Volker denied that there was a ‘quid pro quo.’ Mr. [Tim] Morrison said there was nothing wrong on the call.” – READ MORE