Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) pointed to Republicans “directly” coming to him with concerns after witnessing a “weak” showing during the first GOP-led impeachment inquiry hearing on President Joe Biden.
“I know there was a lot of consternation and alarm on the Republican side to see how weak the case was,” Raskin told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday.
“You heard that from Republicans?” Collins asked.
“Oh, directly on the floor, in fact,” Raskin added.
The hearing featured GOP-called witnesses noting that there’s a lack of evidence to impeach Biden while Democrats – such as Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) – ripped the party’s efforts toward the inquiry, as well.
This included Moskowitz knocking Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who told Fox News in June that Republicans are “not interested” in whether allegations aimed at Biden were accurate or not.
Raskin, earlier in his interview with Collins, told the CNN host that he doesn’t see Republicans “moving forward” on the impeachment inquiry.
“Do you think there’ll be more impeachment hearings after what we saw today?” Collins asked.
“I kind of doubt it after what we saw today or at least it will be a while,” Raskin replied.
The Maryland Democrat later cited what GOP lawmakers have relayed to him about the impeachment inquiry hearing.
“Several Republicans were saying to me that the right wing is now saying that Kevin McCarthy actually set it up to be a failure because he didn’t want to proceed with impeachment,” said Raskin of the house speaker, who previously said he wouldn’t open such an inquiry without a House vote.
“They couldn’t believe that such a disaster would just happen by accident. I think that attributes a lot more organization and foresight to Kevin.”