Lee Zeldin: Impeachment Inquiry Will Rip the ‘Country in Half’

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said Monday that the Democrats’ partisan impeachment inquiry will rip the “country in half.”

Zeldin said in an interview with NBC News that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) impeachment inquiry continues to drive the country apart.

Zeldin, in a similar manner to Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC), has become one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest defenders. NBC News found that the New York congressman representing eastern Long Island has spoken 550 times in the seven impeachment deposition transcripts released thus far, which is more than any other House Republican.

Zeldin said that he will continue to follow the facts surrounding the impeachment inquiry and that most of his constituents oppose the Democrats’ move to impeach Trump.

Zeldin said:

For me, it’s just about getting facts out there and getting the rest of the story out there. Adam Schiff isn’t going to do that for my constituents. And I have a lot of constituents who oppose this impeachment inquiry. Most of the calls my office receives are from people who are opposed to this impeachment inquiry. This isn’t an issue, obviously, that’s going to unite a country.

The New York congressman charged that the impeachment inquiry would create a fracture between Americans.

As a matter of fact, an impeachment inquiry like this rips the country in half. So I’m not expecting unanimous calls to come into my office in opposition to the impeachment inquiry. We hear from people who oppose the president. And quite frankly, many of those people have opposed the president since the day he was elected and sworn into office.

During a press conference in October after the vote on a Democrat resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry, Zeldin said that many Democrats who voted in favor of the resolution would not get reelected in 2020.

Zeldin said, “There are a number of Democrats that chose to vote the wrong way, and they should have voted no, but they won’t be here to serve anymore come January of 2021.”

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has chosen to sacrifice a few of her own members” in pursuit of impeachment, Zeldin added.

“You all are being used,”  he said, pointing towards the media. “Your sources, those Dems in the bunker, are trying to create a narrative because Adam Schiff aspires to write the world’s greatest parody.”