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Rep. Gaetz defends Trump against latest impeachment testimony

November 12, 2019

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., defended President Trump against the latest batch of transcripts from House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, saying it's not surprising the Washington establishment has a problem with the president shaking things up.

"I think that time and again, you'll see the individuals testifying this coming week fit into the category of people who had a substantive policy disagreement with the administration, and the administration that they themselves were a part of. You see, time and again, people as a part of the diplomatic corps push back on any administration that comes in and tries to change things up," Gaetz said on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Monday.


"President Trump has a different way of interacting with other countries. He has a different style."

"And here, I think you see testimony consistent with what you'll hear from [ex-diplomats George Kent, Marie Yovanovitch and William Taylor], and that is that they didn't agree with what the president was doing," Gaetz added. "And, they think it's impeachable, whereas I think the country won't."

Gaetz was reacting to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper testifying that the Trump administration had pushed Ukraine to issue a public statement disavowing any efforts to influence U.S. elections -- but Cooper stopped short of saying that officials wanted to include a reference to Joe and Hunter Biden's business dealings in the country, according to a transcript of her closed-door Oct. 23 deposition released Monday by House Democrats as part of their impeachment inquiry.

Gaetz also dismissed the accusation of bribery levied against the president in response to Fox News senior legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano's previous segment on the program.

"I would disagree that bribery would be applicable for this reason. For bribery to have been committed, you have to be asking someone to do something that they would not otherwise do with President Zelinsky, who ran an entire campaign on rooting out corruption," Gaetz said.

He added that it was "justifiable then for the president to say, well, if you're looking under the hood... let's make sure that there weren't Americans or American administrations or Joe Biden linked to any of that corruption."

The congressman also advised Democrats to "bench" House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and put the investigation in the hands of lawmakers from more "moderate" Democrats districts Trump won, saying they would show "more objectivity."