Rep. Swalwell grilled on impeachment inquiry, defends release of Nunes’ phone records

Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell said Friday he would not “assume how people will vote” on articles of impeachment, but that he did believe it was warranted for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to release Ranking Member Devin Nunes’ phone records.

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Democrats to “proceed with articles of impeachment.” Her announcement came following the release of a 300-page report from the Intelligence Committee which accused the president of placing his own personal and political interest before the United States, seeking to undermine the integrity of the presidential election process, and endangering national security.

Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” with host Bill Hemmer, the California congressman said it would be unfair to President Trump to predict whether Democrats have the votes to pass an impeachment. But he expressed confidence that there are “enough responsible people in the House to hold the president accountable.”

DOUBTS RAISED AFTER SCHIFF CLAIMS PHONE RECORDS PROVE GIULIANI’S WHITE HOUSE BUDGET OFFICE CALLS

He said that Democrats have to “make sure people understand just what’s at stake here” and that they want the American people to “understand what the president did … is wrong and people need to be held accountable when they commit wrongdoing like that.”

However, Swalwell also told Hemmer he believes the president “deserves a process that’s fair.”

“The facts are powerful, but the process behind the facts also [has] to be fair,” he said.

The House Intelligence Committee’s report also revealed phone records obtained by Schiff to bolster the impeachment case against the president. The records included calls from Rep. Nunes, presidential lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, journalist John Solomon, Fox News host Sean Hannity, Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, and other White House associates.

Hemmer asked Swalwell why Schiff was making these phone numbers public, with Swalwell answering that a “better question” is why Nunes was talking to Giuliani and Parnas at a time when a “smear and clear campaign” by the president was taking place to remove the Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

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“That’s an accusation,” Hemmer pushed back. “You’re already drawing a conclusion…”

“The call records are clear,” Swalwell responded. Ranking Member Nunes was talking to these individuals and what is really striking is that he used all of this time during the public hearing to attack Adam Schiff.”

“If you don’t talk to indicted felons, you don’t end up on call records,” he concluded.

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