Vice President Mike Pence: Democrats Have Abandoned Legislating to Pursue Impeachment Strategy

Vice President Mike Pence says the Democrats on Capitol Hill have given up on trying to solve Americans’ problems in order to instead pursue a strategy of attempting to impeach President Donald Trump.

In an interview with PBS’s Judy Woodruff that aired Monday evening, Pence made the case that reforms on guns, immigration, the economy, healthcare, and more seem “to have gone by the boards in this reckless pursuit of impeachment by the Democrats.”

Pence said:

This summer, we were talking with Republicans and Democrats about possible solutions that could go forward. Now, we’ll always protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms of the American people, but there are things that we can do that would make the country safer.

Pence added that Democrats have scuttled a number of different potential policy wins for American workers and families by pursuing this “reckless” strategy. In fact, as of this writing, as Breitbart News has reported multiple times, Democrats in the House majority have zero big-picture legislative accomplishments and have passed nothing but meaningless political resolutions and messaging bills that have no chance of becoming law. They have spent all their political capital on investigations in what has now become an impeachment fight.

Pence said:

We have a crisis of opioid abuse and addiction in this country. Our administration has made historic investments in supporting local law enforcement and healthcare providers. But there’s so much more we can do. And on the economy, even though President Trump was able to cut taxes across the board, roll back regulation, unleash American energy, and now 6.5 million jobs, records in the stock market, more Americans working than ever before — we believe, by passing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, that we can add even more strength to this economy. The S&P set a record today, and we believe it’s all evidence to the fact that this economy is ready to grow if we’ll work together in ways that will continue to strengthen the opportunities the American people have. And so I think as the American people let their voice be heard to members on Capitol Hill, I think elected representatives are going to continue to hear the American people say, ‘Enough is enough. Enough with the endless investigations. We want Congress to roll your sleeves up, work with this President, and keep America safe and growing strong.’

Pence’s interview comes as House Democrats have announced that, more than a month into their so-called “impeachment inquiry” on Trump, they will finally on Thursday hold a vote to formalize the process. This comes after weeks of hearings, depositions, and transcribed interviews behind closed doors in a secret room in the basement of the Capitol controlled by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Leaks from that room, selective in nature and often without full context of remarks, have portrayed a certain narrative against President Trump. Democrats defended doing it this way until they finally relented on Monday, a few days after GOP members stormed the Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF) secretive room from which Schiff has been running these proceedings at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s direction.

Pence, during the interview with Woodruff, ripped the Democrats’ secretive process:

The American people have a right to know. Impeachment is a grave and serious matter in the life of this nation. And the way the Democrats are conducting this so-called impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill, behind closed doors, is wrong. And they should open this whole process to the light of day. They should release all of the transcripts.

Pence also said that if the House is going to move forward in this process, there should be transparency—something that the Democrats have lacked so far:

In the last two impeachment inquiries — you know, Judy — there were rules that were established where counsel could be in the room, where due process rights of the President and of the administration were respected. And that’s simply not the case now.

Pence added later in the interview that Congress has taken no position on this yet, because Pelosi cooked it up at a press conference.

Now, remember, Judy, I was in the Congress for 12 years. The Congress acts by a vote in the majority. Even that hasn’t happened here. The Speaker of the House, unilaterally, initiated an impeachment inquiry. There’s been no vote. Members of Congress have taken no position on this inquiry. And most members of Congress have no access at all to what’s happening behind closed doors. And I think the American people just deserve better.

Pence also said he challenges the conventional wisdom that Democrats are destined to impeach Trump, and that the Senate will clear him, a common expectation among the political class. He said when the public finds out how weak the Democrats’ case is, he thinks they will pressure their lawmakers to oppose voting for impeachment. Pelosi can only afford to lose a few more than a dozen votes, and given that 31 Democrats currently represent districts in which President Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton—13 of which Trump won by six percent or more—that does not seem impossible.

“Well, let’s be clear, first, that I don’t take it as a foregone conclusion that the House will vote to impeach President Donald Trump,” Pence said. “I mean, as the American people take a look at the facts in this case, they read the transcript that was so mischaracterized by the whistleblower and grossly mischaracterized by Chairman Adam Schiff in his fabricated version of the phone call that he read into the committee — but when people read the transcript, they’ll see, despite the reckless allegations of many in the media, there was no quid pro quo. President Zelensky himself said there was no pressure, that it was a perfectly good phone call. The President did nothing wrong. And as the facts all come out, I think the American people will come to understand that. And I expect they’ll let their voice be heard on Capitol Hill.”

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