Rep. Gallagher Joins the Hugh Hewitt Show скачать в хорошем качестве

Rep. Gallagher Joins the Hugh Hewitt Show

This morning, Rep. Gallagher joined the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, where he outlined why he voted against the impeachment of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and how this move would not only fail to resolve President Biden's border crisis, but also set a dangerous new precedent that will be used against future Republican administrations. Read highlights of the conversation below. Hugh Hewitt: Let's begin by the fact you have a Wall Street Journal editorial, which is very persuasive explaining why you voted no on the Mayorkas impeachment. Why don't you explain to the audience why you did so? Rep. Gallagher: Well, the op-ed focuses on the constitutional questions. If I could explain maybe the practical issue that I don't really get into there. Let's assume Mayorkas gets impeached, and I actually think he will once they figure out a way to get all the members present. I concede the fact that the border is an unmitigated disaster. When I was a freshman member of the Homeland Security Committee, I chaired the special task force on denying terrorists entry into the United States. It was a problem in 2017, it got worse such that President Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border. It has gotten exponentially worse under President Biden. It's a humanitarian tragedy. It's a national security threat. I concede all of these points. I've voted for every hawkish immigration bill and against every amnesty bill that I've been confronted with in my seven years in Congress, I concede that point. But ask yourself, if Mayorkas gets impeached, or when he gets impeached? What changes at the southern border? What problem will this solve? And furthermore, let's tease that logic out a little bit. If two Trump impeachments and failed convictions in the Senate, which is of course what would happen with Mayorkas, made Trump stronger? Would it not further embolden Mayorkas and the Biden administration in this border mess? I just don't see what practical problem this actually solves at the southern border, it will not fix anything at the southern border. Hugh Hewitt: So, the counter argument is, the impeachment of Mayorkas would at least give us an opportunity to rebut the president, and I'm sure you heard that on the floor yesterday. Did you hear that argument on the floor? And what's your response to it? Rep. Gallagher: Yeah, I heard that argument. And the related argument that well, the Democrats already lowered the standard for impeachment, therefore, we can't unilaterally disarm. I would say two things. Everything we do is both political and practical in policy, and being political does not absolve you from standing on principle. The second thing is, I don't think that argument would hold with your kids, right? You wouldn't say because someone else did something we didn't like, well now, turnabout is fair play. And furthermore, when you're dealing with something like impeachment, the very fact that we are going back to the 1800s to find precedent and support for our arguments suggest that this vote is not merely a political exercise. This vote will reverberate throughout history and future congresses will be looking to this vote to determine whether to impeach someone in the future, and I think this is ultimately the intellectual hurdle I couldn't get over. I fear by further lowering the bar for impeachment, and endorsing the principle that you can impeach a cabinet secretary for egregious maladministration in the absence of a crime, and we've never impeached a cabinet secretary before in the absence of a crime, we're pointing a loaded gun at the next Trump administration. And we'll see, of course, Democrats will exploit this new standard and weaponize it to create chaos and make it impossible, ironically, for Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security to secure the southern border, or for us to implement a conservative policy. And so that's my concern. I want to sincerely say, I respect everyone on the other side, I get the concerns of the southern border, I share them and if this actually were to somehow improve the crisis at the southern border, perhaps I would have considered it differently or if the articles were drafted a little differently. And in particular, I commend Chairman Green who I truly admire. He's a man of honor. He's a warrior. He's a scholar. I love Chairman Green and I respect his work. It gives me no joy to do this, I just have to stay consistent with the arguments I made defending Trump against the Democrats weaponization of impeachment. Read his WSJ op-ed here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/impeachi...