Since Collins refused to discuss any impeachable scenario, or admit that Trump has committed any impeachable offense, Rep. Scanlon decided to humiliate him by listing actual Republicans who have spines and consciences.
December 17, 2019

Try as she might, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon could not get Rep. Doug Collins to specify what he felt might constitute an impeachable offense. She listed anything and everything under the sun that most with an 8th-grade civics education would KNOW was clearly impeachable, and he refused to state if he would impeach under those circumstances. All he would say is that the actions of THIS president, backed up by testimony presented by THESE witnesses, in THIS Democratic-majority House of Representatives were absolutely NOT impeachable.

Rep. Scanlon then summarily torched him with a long, humiliating list of Republicans who, as she slid in beautifully, were "not dependent on the president for continuation in their job," and had the moral clarity to state the bleeding obvious.

REP. SCANLON: One other thing I wanted to push back on what is this idea that somehow this impeachment process is some kind of radical left plot of some sort...I want to make it clear for the record that the only radical view I'm embracing here is the idea that we the people, should be governed by a constitution that divides powers between three coequal branches and establishes checks and balances on the president. Despite the rhetoric that somehow this is a completely partisan exercise, my faith in these core constitutional principles is, I believe, still a shared American value that unites Democrats, Independents, Conservatives, Libertarians.

I think there is a growing consensus even among Republicans who speak off the record who are not dependent on the president for continuation in their job, and I'd like to point to a couple of examples. This weekend, Tom Ridge, the former Republican governor of my home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the first Homeland Secretary of the United States, member of Congress, Vietnam vet, said that he believed the president's conduct here was an abuse of power to ask a foreign leader for a political favor. Our former colleague Mr. Dent also from Pennsylvania, said he has spoken with Republicans who are absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the president's behavior. Another former Republican colleague of ours, David Jolly, said we witnessed an impeachable moment, former Republican congressman Reid Ribble of Wisconsin said recently, "Clearly there was some sort of quid pro quo," and when asked if he believed the testimony presented warrants impeachment, he said, "I do." Former South Carolina Republican congressman Bob Inglis, who served on the Judiciary Committee during the Clinton impeachment said last month, "Without a doubt, if Barack Obama had done the things revealed in the current inquiry, we Republicans would have impeached him."

And while I'm hesitant, I don't want my colleagues to have a stroke, Joe Scarborough, who is a former Republican congressman from Florida, said "Every Republican knows that Donald Trump was asking for dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for releasing military funds." These are just a few of the folks that came out here.

REP. HASTINGS: Ms. Scanlon, would you yield just one moment, so I can add one? William Webster. The only person that has been the FBI and CIA director, said the same thing.

REP. SCANLON: At age 95. And with that I would yield back to Mr. Raskin.

Collins responded by scoffing that those Republicans didn't wear "pins" (meaning they weren't members of the House of Representatives NOW) which essentially proved Rep. Scanlon's point for her. These GOP bottom-feeders need to feed off Trump's bottomless grift-factory in order to retain power. In other words, they're terrified to cross him, and/or they're angling for whatever power/business/money they think he can shove their way. They're not about to jeopardize that for something as insignificant as upholding democracy, or retaining a shred of moral decency.

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