House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is all but "Kabuki theater at this point,' former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy said Friday.
Appearing on "America's Newsroom" with host Bill Hemmer, McCarthy argued that the way the media is reporting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's probe is "simply inaccurate about what's going on."
"For example, this whole idea that there is an impeachment inquiry: there's not. The idea that there are subpoenas: there aren't. And, I think a lot of people are consuming it as if it were true on face value and I really think if I were the White House what I would be worried about is breaking through that," McCarthy told Hemmer.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is joined by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., at a news conference as House Democrats move ahead in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
In an op-ed in The Hill, McCarthy wrote that congressional Democrats, to the contrary, are instead conducting the 2020 political campaign: "Democrats are mulishly determined to ram through an article of impeachment or two, regardless of whether the State Department and other agencies cooperate in the farce. Their base wants the scarlet-letter 'I' (impeachment) attached to Trump. The party hopes to rally the troops for the 2020 campaign against Trump...If Democrats truly thought they had a case, they wouldn't be in such a rush---they'd want everyone to have time to study it. But they don't have a case, so instead they're giving us a show."
House Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry into the president after a whistleblower complaint suggested the president, during a July phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, tried to induce officials there to investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and their business dealings in that country.
"The question here is, was there a corrupt quid pro quo?" the Fox News contributor asked.
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On Thursday, the Trump administration confirmed with Fox News that they will send Pelosi a letter "daring" her to hold a vote on the impeachment inquiry.
The letter will say that the White House won't comply with the Democrats' investigation because Pelosi hasn't codified the probe with a formal vote on the House floor. The letter will mirror the tone of a letter House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sent to the speaker on Thursday.
"I think it's the right thing for him to do," Andy McCarthy said. "The Constitution reposes the power to impeach solely in the House. Not in the Speaker of the House, the House."
McCarthy said it would actually benefit the House if it wanted to go into court and try to enforce any information demands: "The first thing a court's going to want to know is, 'Has the House voted to have an impeachment inquiry?' And, a lot hinges on that, including how much expansion a court would give a president's claim of executive privilege and privilege over matters that are in the president's duties under Article II.
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"If they really have grounds to seek the president's impeachment, they not only should have a vote because it's in their interests when they go to court to have a vote, they should be proud to have a vote," McCarthy added.
He concluded: "If [House Democrats] really think they have grounds to remove the President of the United States from power, then the House should speak as one as an institution and vote that way."
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
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