Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Interview with Steve Scalise

Interview

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INGRAHAM: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy lambasting Speaker Nancy Pelosi for caving to the impeachment frenzy today. Standing next to him, as you could see right there, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise. He joins me know. Also with me is Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at Hoover Institution.

First, Congressman, you didn't get to speak at the news conference, so what's your reaction today?

REP. STEVE SCALISE, R-LA, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: Laura, first of all, if you look at this, Nancy Pelosi said from day one and all them, Jerry Nadler, they were going to impeach the president. They never had any facts. There was never a basis. They thought the Mueller report was going to find it. The Mueller report comes out, says there was no collusion, and instead of just shutting it down and moving on to fixing real problems, they had to find something else. And so they've just been on this witch hunt.

They still don't have anything. We're going to see the facts tomorrow. Pelosi didn't even wait for the facts. She said we've just got to say we're going to impeach the president, and so she did. But look at what they are trying to do right now, Laura. Nancy Pelosi spends more time bringing a bill to the floor to name a post office than she does to start an impeachment proceeding against the president of the United States. It's reckless, it's irresponsible, and it's an abdication of the constitutional duty that impeachment is.

INGRAHAM: And where is the USMCA vote? We need the trade agreement --

SCALISE: All those jobs, the crisis at the border, lower drug prices, all of it could be done.

INGRAHAM: Who needs to do any of that?

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INGRAHAM: Congressman Scalise, a couple people around the edges see the danger for Democrats. The country doesn't want impeachment. I guess that could change, as Sol Wisenberg said, or Andy McCarthy, as fact come in. It could change. But right now not looking good, except for Democrat activists wanted it.

SCALISE: This was a bad day for Nancy Pelosi. She has known from the beginning impeachment is going to be devastating to her party, but they just can't help themselves.

But look, the author of the articles of impeachment -- and again, there's nothing to impeach the president on, but yet the member of Congress who filed the articles of impeachment himself today said that they don't think that they can beat the president so they're going to use impeachment. And if you look at the Constitution, impeachment is supposed to be used as a check against the executive. Nancy Pelosi is trying to use impeachment as a check against the electorate. That's not the way it's supposed to work.

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INGRAHAM: That's all they have. But they do it across the board. They do it across the board. This is what they all -- this is all they have.

And by the way, a really important piece from John Yoo, former deputy U.S. attorney general. He was writing for the "New York Times," and this just was published, about what this is doing to the office of the presidency. He said "We should be aware that rushing into any impeachment may do long term harm to the presidency and our national security. If Congress could regulate presidential discussions with foreign leaders, presidents and foreign leaders would speak less candidly or stop making the calls altogether. United States foreign policy would be crippled." Congressman?

SCALISE: Very valid point, Laura. And you look what they are doing, they wanted to get rid of this president. They wanted to undo the election of 2016. We're going to have an election next year. I think this, number one, it strengthens President Trump's case because they hurt Joe Biden, they helped Elizabeth Warren. This is not a good day for them.

INGRAHAM: This is all the time we have tonight, but incredible analysis. Victor, we're going to have you back later this week. We had phenomenal coverage tonight. This is really important. The details of this conversation matter. And we want to give everybody enough time across the board to get their points in. We're going to call everyone accountable.

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