Elise Stefanik says Democrats' 'crumbling' impeachment inquiry 'reeks of political desperation'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}House Democrats’ case for the impeachment of President Trump is “crumbling,” according to a key Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., made the claim Thursday night during an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity."
She said the facts gleaned from witness testimony make clear that the Democrats' narrative that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine's president into conducting a political investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden by withholding military aid just doesn't pan out.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TRUMP PRAISES REP. STEFANIK AFTER YOVANOVITCH HEARING: ‘A NEW REPUBLICAN STAR IS BORN'
“Ukraine got the aid, there was no 'quid pro quo' and there was no investigation into the Bidens," Stefanik told host Sean Hannity.
“Ukraine got the aid, there was no 'quid pro quo' and there was no investigation into the Bidens."
She added that the only investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian oil company for which Hunter Biden served on the board, was during the Obama administration.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Yet [House Intel Chairman] Adam Schiff continues his regime of secrecy, and because I’ve been such an outspoken advocate for the facts I’ve have been attacked by the Hollywood left," she said.
Hannity told her he thought Republicans were “at their best” this week.
Stefanik also criticized the initial closed-door process that took place at the beginning of the inquiry.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}'Political desperation'
Earlier Thursday, on Capitol Hill, Stefanik called out the House Intel panel's Democrats, accusing them of making “untruthful” statements and saying their impeachment inquiry "reeks of political desperation.”
Specifically, she aimed at the Democrats' claim that Republicans back a theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“Not a single Republican member of this committee has said that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 election,” Stefanik said. “The American people understand that this has been a partisan process from the start."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The American people understand that this has been a partisan process from the start."
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., questions former White House national security aide Fiona Hill, and David Holmes, a U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, as they testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. (Associated Press)
On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified there was a quid pro quo discussed in Trump's July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine.
“Was there a quid pro quo?... The answer is yes,” he said under oath. “Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.”
The remarks contradicted Sondland's previous testimony.
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On Thursday, Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council member, testified that the Ukrainian election meddling narrative was a “harmful” Russian-born "fiction."