UNITED STATES CAPITOL — Republican Reps. Mark Meadows and Lee Zeldin weighed in on the Senate’s impeachment trial Tuesday, telling the Daily Caller that the Democrat’s case is weak and that the process has been unfair to the president.
Tuesday marked the first day of President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. Meadows of North Carolina and Zeldin of New York both ripped the process during a break in proceedings. Both men have been named to Trump’s impeachment team.
“It’s not clear, it’s certainly not proper and I would even say it’s un-American,” Meadows said.
Zeldin expanded on this, calling out Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler for claiming the case was proven “beyond a doubt.” He condemned the Democrats’ push for hearing from new witnesses, saying if the case has, in fact, been proven, then this would not be necessary.
“Jerry Nadler said on the floor of the House of Representatives that they proved their case beyond a doubt,” Zeldin said Tuesday. “They said that the facts are uncontested. They said it was indisputable. At the end of their rush process, they insisted that they proved the entirety of their case beyond a doubt.”
“Those are Jerry Nadler’s words. So to immediately hear Senate Democrats say that they need to have witnesses in order to, for example, show why there was a hold on aid. You just told us on the other side of this building that you’d proved beyond a doubt exactly why there was a hold on aid. So, why are you claiming your star witnesses haven’t even been heard from yet?”
House Republicans Mark Meadows and Lee Zeldin, both named to the President’s impeachment team, are now speaking with reporters outside Senate chamber while the trial continues inside. pic.twitter.com/6WoYg1PftV
— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) January 21, 2020
Meadows also argued that, despite Nadler’s previous claims the case is air-tight, it is not one “that’s ready for primetime.” He told the Daily Caller that suggesting additional information is needed shows the case should be dismissed, citing lawyer Pat Cipollone’s opening remarks Tuesday.
“Anyone who was listening to that [Cipollone] would have to question why, indeed, we’re here and why we continue to be here,” Meadows said. “Why we don’t just vote to dismiss it. But I think it was a very articulate message on the fact that not only is there not a case that’s ready for primetime, but there’s a suggestion that there’s the need for additional information, which is not normally what you would do when you go to try a case.”
The two Republican congressmen bashed the House’s impeachment process leading up to this trial, with Zeldin noting that “not a single Republican witness was called who wasn’t on” the Democrat’s list.
Zeldin called out Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff for “irony and hypocrisy” over lecturing the Senate and the “American public” on “what fairness and honesty looks like.” (RELATED: Rep Mark Meadows Rips Into CBS Reporter Who Says She’s Read ‘All’ The Transcripts Of Impeachment Depositions)
“After the process that I just witnessed as a House member on the other side?” Zeldin said. “The amount of irony and hypocrisy of Adam Schiff walking to the other end of the Capitol to lecture the Senate, to lecture the American public, of what fairness and honesty looks like.”
“It was a corrupt, rigged process from start to finish in the House.”