Rep. Kildee calls out 'deep state paranoia' by GOP lawmakers on impeachment inquiry
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Michigan Democrat Dan Kildee said on Wednesday that Republicans are extremely focused on the process and procedure of impeachment and not on President Trump's actions.
“Some of this deep state paranoia I think gets a little bit out of hand,” Rep. Kildee told “America’s Newsroom.”
“The whistleblower acted on his or her own, went through the channels, those channels were denied and ultimately went through the committee. That’s the process.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOP REPS SAY SCHIFF STOPPED IMPEACHMENT WITNESS FROM ANSWERING CERTAIN GOP QUESTIONS
In a fiery news conference Tuesday, House Republican leaders said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., prevented a witness in the latest impeachment hearing from answering certain questions from Republican members.
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters that Schiff shut down a Republican line of questioning during a hearing with Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the latest current or former Trump administration official to come before Congress in relation to the impeachment probe.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"When we asked [Vindman] who he spoke to after important events in July -- Adam Schiff says, 'no, no, no, we're not going to let him answer that question,"' Jordan said.
DEMS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION FORMALIZING IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY PROCEDURES
Jordan went on to say that Schiff seemed to be breaking his own rules for the hearings, implying the chairman was acting almost as a "lawyer" for Vindman.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“There’s almost entirely by the Republican conference a focus on process and procedure and not a moment of thought about the underlying facts, which are really the subject of all this inquiry in the first place,” Kildee argued.
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Vindman, who serves as a director on the National Security Council (NSC), testified before the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees. He expressed concern in his prepared opening statement, obtained by Fox News, over Trump's request to have Ukraine investigate political opponents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He also stated that he does not know who the whistleblower is whose complaint spurred the beginning of the Democrats' current impeachment inquiry and does not feel comfortable speculating about the whistleblower's identity.
Fox News' contributor Tyler Olson contributed to this report.