Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) is not running for re-election in 2020, which means he is free to blast Republicans without holding back, which he did on Thursday morning during an interview on CNN.
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that the committee chairmen would finally pursue articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, and two such articles have now been introduced, including one for abuse of power and another for obstruction of Congress. These are serious charges, but Republicans are ignoring the evidence and are trying to turn debates and hearings into a circus.
Heck announced his decision to not seek re-election last week as well, and that’s why he took no prisoners when he called out Republicans in his written announcement for so desperately defending a criminal president.
“I will never understand how some of my colleagues, in many ways good people, could ignore or deny the president’s unrelenting attack on a free press, his vicious character assassination of anyone who disagreed with him, and his demonstrably very distant relationship with the truth,” Heck wrote.
Heck went on to double down on taking Republicans to the woodshed on CNN.
“How it is some of my Republican colleagues, in particular, have been able to look the other way at the president’s behavior with respect to what he did with Ukraine and that phone call with President Zelensky in which he said ’I would like you to do us a favor though…’ but all of his other behavior as well,” Heck said. “Whether it’s his distant relationship with the truth or his proclivity to, frankly, viciously attack anybody that simply disagrees with him or any number of offenses that he’s engaged over the years, it’s made my heart heavy.”
He then took particular aim at Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas.) for blatantly violating the law when he publicly named the whistleblower who came forward to out Trump’s Ukraine scheme.
“Frankly it wasn’t helped at all yesterday, John, when one of the members on the other side of the aisle decided that it was an appropriate time during the Judiciary Committee to publicly indicate the person who is alleged to be the whistleblower,” he said. “I’ve seen way too many times the tactics on the other side of the aisle have frankly shattered norms and degraded our institutions. I saw it last night in that hearing and saw it in the SCIF — the Secure Compartment information Facility — when a group of them stormed the facility. Are there no limits?”
Here’s the video via YouTube:
Republicans are subverting democracy and the Constitution in their desperate scheme to defend Trump, and Heck was right to call them out for it. This is not how a political party is supposed to act. Had a Democratic president done what Trump is doing, Republicans would be singing a different tune. They would be all too eager to impeach. And they should be ashamed of themselves.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot
