Gowdy on Dems Secret Hearings: I ‘100 Percent’ Believe Public Congressional Hearings Are a Circus

On Sunday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said he supported the House Democrats holding their impeachment inquiry hearings behind closed doors.

Partial transcript as follows:

BRENNAN: Well you- you’re talking about process there and that’s very specific here in terms of some of the criticisms from Republicans of this Democrat-led investigation. You said to me on this program in April in 2018 the following:

[VIDEO CLIP] GOWDY: Well, our private hearing was much more constructive than the public hearing. I mean public hearings are a circus, Margaret. I mean that’s why I don’t like to do them. I don’t do many of them. I mean there- it’s a freak show.

BRENNAN: Do you still believe that?

GOWDY: One hundred percent.

BRENNAN: So these hearings–

GOWDY: I- I- I have always–

BRENNAN: — should remain- these depositions should remain private?

GOWDY: Well you can’t pick and choose which aspects of due process you’re going to use. It’s not just the privacy, I mean the reason we respect executive branch investigations isn’t because they’re behind closed doors, it’s because there are no leaks. I mean John Durham- you have no idea what John Durham has been doing. You have no idea what Michael Horowitz is going to say in his Pfizer report. There were no leaks with Bob Mueller. You contrast that with the fact that Adam Schiff has had more press conferences this weekend than those three men have had in their lives. He uses an opening statement to give a parody. He lies about a whistleblower. So yes, I prefer executive branch investigations because they’re fact-centric, because you wait until the end to draw conclusions, and because there are no leaks. So I do understand the Republican frustration with the current investigation. My bias has always been towards investigations that wait until the end before they share their conclusions. It’s just not fair to do it on an hour-by-hour basis. I- I- one other point Margaret: there’s a reason in courtrooms, the judge tells the jury, you can’t even begin to make up your mind until the last witness has testified, and the last piece of evidence has been introduced. I mean, if it’s good enough for the justice system why should it not also be good enough for the political system?

BRENNAN: So, in other words, the storming of the classified area by some Republicans was a bit of a political stunt and you think that what is being revealed behind closed doors should be heard out before judgments are made on whether or not the president should be impeached?

GOWDY: I think two things: I’m a rule follower, I threw a Republican out of a hearing because he was not a member of- of the committee. I didn’t take pictures on the House floor, even though I was in the minority. I’m a rule follower. So, I think if you’re going to have private investigations with unlimited time for questioning and cross examining witnesses that’s a good thing. What’s not a good thing is to have selective leaks where you pick one sentence out of an eight hour deposition, run to a bank of microphones and try to- try to prejudice the outcome of the investigation. Again, Horowitz doesn’t do it. Durham doesn’t do it. Mueller didn’t do it. All three of those investigations we have respect for.

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