Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Bradley Byrne, and Rep. Steve Scalise
Interview
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INGRAHAM: Well instead of asking why the most serious political tactic available, impeachment, the removal of a duly-elected President, is happening out of the public view, the Left moved to paint this as just an act of desperation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TED LIEU, D-CALIF.: You may wonder why is it happening now? Because Bill Taylor gave a devastating opening statement yesterday. They're freaked out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All they can talk about is this stuff that these guys got all spun up about today, which is "It's secrets, process. It's the bowels of the capitals."
That's the sign of a losing argument, and they know it.
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Isn't the whole strategy by Jordan and Meadows is and it - in some ways, is to make it a circus?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Here to respond is House Minority Whip, Steve Scalise, Alabama Congressman, Bradley Byrne, and Jim Jordan, Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee.
Congressman Jordan, let's start with you. You heard Chuck Todd there.
REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: Yes.
INGRAHAM: This is a distraction. You specifically are looking to turn this into a circus. Your response?
JORDAN: Here's the fundamental question. There's one person who started this whole thing, the whistleblower. In the whistleblower's complaint, bullet point number one, he says, "Over the past four months, more than half a dozen U.S. officials gave me the basis for this complaint."
To date, we don't know who any of those people are. So, 435 Members of the House who represent over 300 million people in this great country, and only one Member of Congress, Adam Schiff knows who the whistleblower is, and who those more than half a dozen U.S. officials, who gave him the information that formed the basis of - of his complaint.
Why don't we know? More importantly, why don't you know in the media? Why doesn't the American people know?
Adam Schiff is doing this unfair partisan process in secret, and our Members finally said, "Enough." We're - we're so frustrated. They reached a boiling point.
And these guys marched in, and said, "We want to know what's going on because we represent three-quarters of a million people back home in our districts, and they'd like to know what's going on, because you guys are trying to take out a President 13 months before an election." That's what happened.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Byrne, this idea of storming the beaches of - of the impeachment proceeding, whatever we're calling the sham, the Bloomberg, other publications are saying that this basically was just our - orchestrated by the White House.
The White House is calling the shots. You can see the headline there. This is - has Trump's blessing. Earlier this week, he said, basically, "Get out there and fight," and you all are just taking marching orders from him.
BYRNE: Look, that's just not true. We're fed up. We've had enough of this. We've had this drip drip drip of leaks. Jim can't tell us what's happening. But they can leak leak leak. We don't know what's going in that room. We had enough.
We walked in that room, and said, "By golly, we represent the people of the United States. Let the people in this room."
INGRAHAM: Congressman Scalise, we've seen a lot over the last - well I have over the last 20-something years here in Washington. But this is pretty dramatic. What did you all accomplish?
REP. STEVE SCALISE, R-LA: Well the first thing we accomplished is I think we exposed to a lot more people what's really going on behind those closed doors. When we walked into the room, it was interesting because they hadn't started the meeting yet, but they were getting ready to. Adam Schiff himself, the Chairman of the Committee, admitted that was not a classified briefing. And so, why were Members, by the way, Members of Congress, shut out from the meeting?
So, when we walked in, he was confused. He's looking around and trying to figure out how he can throw us out. He wasn't going to throw us out. We weren't going to leave. We weren't there to disrupt anything. We just wanted to see what was going on.
But what's interesting is as soon as the lights were turned on, so to speak, Adam Schiff took the witness, and ran out of the room. What is Adam Schiff trying to hide in that room that 75 percent of the voting Members of Congress can't go in, can't have access to the documents, can't even read the transcripts?
75 percent, that's 230 million people being denied when they're trying to impeach a President of the United States behind closed doors in secret. It's never happened before.
We're going to call him out on it. We're going to keep calling him out on it. And let the public see sunshine is the best disinfectant to what is rotten to the core. It's a Soviet-style Star Chamber.
INGRAHAM: You know, when I was listening to some of these Democrats complain today, I thought "Wait a second! You're all complaining that the Republicans, apparently some brought in phones to a secure area, where you're not supposed to bring in phones."
And we got Bennie Thompson writing a note from, of course, from Mississippi Congressman, saying "Today, a group of Minority Members of the House of Representatives intentionally brought their electronic devices into a SCIF. Such action is a blatant breach of security, violates the Oath all Members sign. I'm requesting you take action with respect to the Members involved in the breach."
Now, they didn't get arrested or dragged out of there. I mean there's no real way to do that. But what is that all about? They're suddenly--
JORDAN: All right--
INGRAHAM: They're suddenly hung up on protocol.
JORDAN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Yes. I thought protocol didn't matter, process didn't matter.
JORDAN: No. And - and look, as soon as the Members knew that they weren't supposed to have their phones in, these aren't guys on the Intel Committee, these guys just wanted to find out what's going on in this unfair process.
So, they walked in, when they were told, get and take your phone - they took the phones out, had someone take their phone out. But they stayed there to see.
And Steve is exactly right. Adam Schiff said, "I'm going to take my football and go home," because when they all come in there, he says, he asked the witness to get up and leave, and he just left.
INGRAHAM: But they all went back for a vote. And Schiff comes--
JORDAN: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: --Shifty Schiff comes backs in.
JORDAN: Exactly right.
INGRAHAM: And does the deposition, Congressman Byrne at 3:15.
JORDAN: Exactly right.
INGRAHAM: So, I go back, and I say, it's a PR deal, which I like, because I think - they play this stunt game all the time. I think Republicans are frankly quite abysmal at selling the President's record of huge peace and prosperity.
I think it's getting better. But I don't think it's been good enough. He's - his number should be way higher. And I think all - all Republicans got to amplify that message. But he goes back and does the depo at 3:15. So, what did you guys accomplish?
BYRNE: We accomplished showing the people of the United States what a farce this is. Jim had them - been in that room for a long time, and they've been seeing it, and telling us, "Guys, if you were in there, you wouldn't believe it."
My first thought, when I walked in that room, was this is pathetic. And if the American people could walk in that room with us, and see what's going on in there, the American people would say, "This is pathetic. This is not our constitutional democracy. They're trying to take it away from us."
INGRAHAM: A friend of mine texted me this afternoon, and she's - she watches the show, and she's - she was born in another country. And she said, "Is this America? I didn't - I wasn't born here. But this doesn't seem like what happens in America."
It was just a very might be a common sense comment, Congressman Scalise on what's going on here. And it's - people say, "Oh, it's only about process." The process does ensure fairness.
SCALISE: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: Without a process in place, we have no due process in our - our Constitution. Imagine if that's out the window. So, they all claim to stand on right to confront accuser, equal protection, due process.
But when it's, when they say, "Well guys this isn't - this is fundamental fairness being violated here." "Oh, you don't care about the substance." But we don't know the substance because the substance is being hidden. That's what I think you guys actually accomplished today.
JORDAN: Exactly right. Exactly.
SCALISE: Yes, Laura, because they don't want people to know that this is actually going on. What they're doing - Adam Schiff is building a record as a premise for impeaching the President, and he's doing it behind closed doors, because they tried to do it in a normal setting.
If you remember, the Mueller investigation was their idea, 22 months, 2,800 subpoenas. There was every kind of investigation you can imagine, and it yielded absolutely nothing. The President didn't do anything wrong. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction, and it crushed them. They thought that was going to be their basis for impeachment.
So, what did they do? They don't give up. They go on and looking for something else. This is a witch-hunt. They're meandering around, trying to find something, and the only way they can do it is not through a fair process, where both sides get to call witnesses, which has always been the case in impeachment.
Adam Schiff is the Star Chamber, again Soviet-style, like you said. Your friend's going "This isn't America," when only the Chairman gets to call the witnesses. They don't even let the President have legal counsel. And they're using this as the basis to impeach the President of the United States.
INGRAHAM: Well kind of.
SCALISE: Behind closed doors. People get that not only is it not fairness. We have an election next year. Let the people of this country decide, not Adam Schiff or Speaker Pelosi.
INGRAHAM: But what they - but - but I - it's so obvious to me what they're doing. And, of course, they have a complicit media, Congressman Jordon.
JORDAN: Well sure. Sure.
INGRAHAM: When you and I, and Scalise, I mean, during this whole Mueller thing, I mean I don't know how many times both of you are on the show, when this same thing was happening--
JORDAN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --in a different form, wasn't quite so secret, but it was a leak. Then The New York Times had another little thing, and then it was an unnamed source, and then it was a fourth party or third party deal, same thing is happening with this new--
SCALISE: Totally.
INGRAHAM: --New York Times story about Ukraine, about well Ukraine knew of the freeze of aid in early August, but then you have to read down the story, and you find out but they didn't know that it wasn't--
JORDAN: No, they didn't. Not till late August.
INGRAHAM: They - but they well - The New York Times piece today, you know, says that it - they actually had some sense in early August. But then you have to read down in the full piece to actually find out they didn't know it was tied, is still at that point directly to--
JORDAN: Right.
INGRAHAM: --a specific Biden investigation that it was a, you know, broader than that.
JORDAN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: But that's how this whole thing goes down.
JORDAN: No. It's - it's - it's always - it's always how they play. And now the argument that Adam Schiff is using, he's actually resorted to the argument, well he's the equivalent now of an Independent Special Counsel. Go try selling that to the American people.
Adam Schiff, Independent, Adam Schiff, a Special Counsel, that's why he is - that's his basis for running this unfair and partisan process in - in the basement of the Capitol. People can see through that.
The one thing I know about the American people, they get fairness, and they instinctively know that this is not fair, and that's what we tried to highlight--
BYRNE: Yes.
JORDAN: --even more for him today when these guys stormed in the room.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Byrne, today we learned, we don't know that what it is yet. But we have learned that there is an - yet another instance - instance of bias that the whistleblower harbors--
BYRNE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --politically--
BYRNE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --apparently--
BYRNE: Yes.
INGRAHAM: --not just having worked in some capacity for Biden, not just being a registered Democrat, apparently there's another thing, again something else nobody knows, and that's why President Trump keeps tweeting "Where's the whistleblower?"
JORDAN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Why are we calling this a whistleblower? We don't even know if this - I mean I don't know this I.G. that none of this was important, I guess, to the Inspector General, and kind of vouched for the whistleblower. But it's just again this - this all seems like cooked in the - cooked in - cooked in the biscuits here.
BYRNE: One of the fundamental things you do when you're interviewing a witness, or you're trying to understand a witness, so try and understand what - what their motivations are.
If we don't know who this person is, we can't tell what their motivations are. So, they're hiding the witness. When they hide the witness from the Triers of Fact, we can't decide what's right, what's true.
JORDAN: Exactly right.
BYRNE: They're trying to keep the truth from us. But in doing so, they're trying to keep the truth from the American people because they know if the American people see the truth that'll be the end of this case.
INGRAHAM: I want to play a sound bite, hold on, from Congressman Castro, not the one running for President, but Congressman Castro, today. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO, D-TX: It looked like a mob scene. It looked like a kind of a mob party coming into that room.
This was kind of the most tense situation in Congress in a long time, particularly with that many people, folks were yelling at each other, it just got very unruly for some time there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCALISE: So untrue.
INGRAHAM: Oh, you were scary! Did you scare him off Scalise?
SCALISE: That's a little bit rich when--
INGRAHAM: Byrne?
BYRNE: It didn't happen that way.
SCALISE: --when people just showing upset, that saying that they want to hear. We showed up to hear what was going on. We didn't show up yelling and screaming. They started yelling and screaming, after Adam Schiff took the witness, and literally ran out of the room. And so, again, it begs the question--
INGRAHAM: "Mommy, Mommy, save me Mommy!"
SCALISE: --what is Adam Schiff trying to hide, not only from us, as voting Members of Congress, not only from the media, but like Brad said, what is he trying to hide from the American people?
Jim's in there every day. He sees leaks that go out that undermine the President that have nothing to do with rational thought, and doesn't have anything to do with what happened in those hearings, but it's trying to set a narrative, because then they say something false that some of the media write about it then--
INGRAHAM: Oh, yes, yes, it's the way it goes (ph). It's like--
SCALISE: --they go back and throw something else at the President.
INGRAHAM: --it's a debunked conspiracy theory.
SCALISE: It's a drip drip drip. That's their only--
INGRAHAM: How many times there is this debunked conspiracy theory.
JORDAN: Oh, yes, which is not true.
INGRAHAM: But don't look into the facts.
JORDAN: Not true.
INGRAHAM: By the way, the tense, the - the tense moment for Congress is when you were shot on that baseball field, Congressman Castro. That was the tense moment. So, that was just - that's--
BYRNE: But this idea that it was a mob scene that is just not true.
JORDAN: Yes.
INGRAHAM: No, we got to--
SCALISE: It wasn't that at all.
BYRNE: And we were very quiet and polite.
INGRAHAM: They have--
SCALISE: We wanted to hear what was going on and we were denied that opportunity.
INGRAHAM: All right, we got to go. Congressmen--
SCALISE: Because Adam Schiff doesn't want people to know the truth.
INGRAHAM: --we're going to be tracking this, obviously, every detail. Thank you very much, all three of you for being here tonight.
JORDAN: Thank you.
SCALISE: Thanks a lot.
BYRNE: Well good to be here.
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