by Debra Heine
In closed-door testimony Saturday, White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official Mark Sandy blew another giant hole in the Democrats’ impeachment probe, according to two Republican lawmakers following the testimony.
Speaking to reporters, Reps Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said Saturday was “a bad day for Democrats” and urged House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to release the transcript, along with five other previous deposition transcripts.
Rep. Zeldin said the next open hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning and argued that it “shouldn’t take place unless all six deposition transcripts are out by then.”
House Democrats are trying to make a connection between the Trump administration’s withholding of aid to Ukraine and President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the president urged Zelensky to look into Ukraine’s 2016 election meddling, as well as corruption involving Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son.
“Today we saw an even bigger hole blown inside of Adam Schiff’s fairy-tale story,” Zeldin told reporters.
The congressman pointed out that Democrats can’t seem to settle on a crime on which to base their impeachment charade.
“One day it was ‘quid pro quo,’ last Sunday they changed it to the word ‘extortion,’ and over the course of this past week, he changed it to the word bribery,” Zeldin explained.
He added: “Today was a sobering reminder of just how ridiculous this impeachment charade is, and how ridiculous the impeachment attack is on the president of the United States. Today was a great day for the Republic, but it was a really bad day for Democrats and the Resistance.”
When asked what Sandy said to blow up the Dems’ impeachment narrative, Zeldin replied, ” I would love to be able to tell you every single question that was asked and every single answer that was given, and if we can get Adam Schiff to give us permission to tell you that, we could talk about every single last thing that happens behind these closed doors.”
Zeldin pointed out that they are now in the “open phase” of the impeachment inquisition, yet they were all there on a Saturday in the basement SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) “where unfortunately all the questions that got asked and all they answers given” no one could watch live.
Zeldin told reporters that Sandy answered the questions “candidly and genuinely” all day, including the question of why there was a hold on Ukrainian aid, and lamented that the American public were not privy to the answer to the questions.
Democrats, however, leaked to the New York Times at least part of Sandy’s answers, saying that the official told the panel that he did not know why aid to Ukraine was held up, darkly claiming that he had never ever come across a hold like that before.
Zeldin urged Schiff to release the transcript so the American people could know the truth.
“There’s just a lot that would get cleared up if he just let that information out quicker,” he said.
Rep. Meadows said that he could tell reporters in general terms that the Democrats’ accusations regarding the hold on aid, were not supported by the Sandy during the deposition.
“We heard today behind closed doors that the assumptions that the Democrats have made and certainly the allegations that they have made have not been supported by the witness’s testimony here today,” Meadows said.
He later explained to reporters that at OMB, a hold on aid is not always known, but the reason was “ultimately shared in general terms behind closed doors and it was consistent with what we’ve heard from the president of the United States.”
Zeldin ticked off all of the pertinent facts in the case, which do not favor the Democrats’ impeachment narrative.
“What did we know before today is that Ukraine did not know that there was a hold on aid until August 29—we heard it with Bill Taylor’s testimony this past Wednesday,” he said. “And then the aid gets released shortly thereafter. And guess what Ukraine had to do in order to get that hold on aid lifted?” the NY congressman asked. “Absolutely nothing.”
Zeldin told reporters that the Dems’ “quid pro quo” and extortion” narratives fizzled out and the answers Sandy gave on Saturday drove a bigger hole in the Democrats’ impeachment fantasy.
He pointed out that there wasn’t a good case to remove the president before Saturday’s deposition, and Democrats have “an even deader case after today.”
“If you were standing on the side of Pennsylvania Avenue in January of 2017 holding a sign that said ‘impeach him now,’ you had a bad day. If you are still having trouble coping with the results of the 2016 election, today was a bad day,” Zeldin added.
He went on to note that the president would be happy with how they day went, “but no one knows more than he does what the answer was to the question.”
Zeldin told reporters that dots are being connected, but they’re not the dots that the Democrats want to see connected.
With a great American, @RepMarkMeadows, after the latest impeachment circus depo today back in Schiff’s Capitol basement bunker. Dedicated, career staffer Mark Sandy at OMB came to answer about the hold on aid to Ukraine. His response made for a deserved bad day for Democrats. pic.twitter.com/vVxBVoEQ4C
— Lee Zeldin (@LeeMZeldin) November 17, 2019
– – –
Debra Heine is a regular contributor to American Greatness.
