During a Friday morning appearance on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the recent House impeachment inquiry hearings and surprised the hosts by calling for a trial so he can call his own witnesses.
Calling into the Fox News morning show, Trump said the Democrats looked like “fools” during the hearings. He specifically called out Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
“All of those witnesses, they’re all Shifty Schiff’s,” he said.
“Don’t forget there was no due process,” he said. “You can’t have lawyers. We couldn’t have any witnesses.”
He said he wanted to call the unidentified White House whistleblower whose complaint kicked off the inquiry to testify “because frankly, I want a trial.”
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked him to clarify: “You want a trial?”
“I would!” he agreed. “Look: Number one, they should never, ever impeach.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in September that the House of Representatives would begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.
The decision came in light of a whistleblower complaint that the president sought to use foreign power from Ukraine for his own political gain. During a phone call with Ukraine’s president, Trump reportedly pressured Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Earlier that week, Trump admitted that he had brought up Biden’s family during the call but told reporters that he did so because “we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.” The president also confirmed that his administration withheld nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine but denied that it was done for leverage.