Gowdy: I ​​'100 percent' still believe public congressional hearings are 'a circus' | TheHill – The Hill, The Hill

Former Rep.Trey GowdyHarold (Trey (Watson GowdyLawmakers come together to honor Cummings: ‘One of the greats in our country history’Gowdy remembers political opponent, good friend Elijah CummingsHill editor-in-chief: ‘Hard to imagine’ House leadership without CummingsMORE(RS.C.), the one-time chair of the House Oversight Committee, defended the use of private congressional hearings and said his issue with the House’s impeachment inquiry was instead leaks from the proceedings.

CBS ‘Margaret Brennan played a clip of Gowdy in 2018 describing public house hearings as a “circus” and a “freakshow” an d asked Gowdy Sunday whether he still believed that amid House Republicans’ insistence that depositions in the House’s impeachment inquiry should be public, with a group of them, including several who were authorized to be present already, storming a deposition in a secure room last week .

“One hundred percent,” Gowdy said on CBS ‘“Face the Nation,” adding “I’m a rule -follower, I threw a Republican out of a hearing because he was not a member of a committee. If you’re going to have private investigations with unlimited time for question and cross-examining witnesses that’s a good thing. ”

.@ TGowdySCsays he still believes in the role of private testimony “100 % “amid GOP outrage over Democrats’ closed-door hearings as part of the impeachment inquirypic.twitter.com/BMfWZb3MEM

– Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation)October 27, 2019

“What’s not a good thing is to have selective leaks where you pick one sentence out of an eight-hour deposition, ”Gowdy added, saying that“ there were no leaks with [special counsel] Bob Mueller, ”whereas House Intellig ence Committee ChairAdam SchiffAdam Bennett SchiffSchiff says committees are making ‘rapid progress’ in impeachment probeTrump rages against ‘garbage’ Ukraine probe ahead of latest witness depositionMark Zuckerberg deserves praise for his noble stand on free speechMORE(D-Calif.) “Uses an opening statement to give a parody, he lies about a whistleblower.”

Brennan pressed Gowdy on whether testimony by diplomats that the White House had conditioned aid to Ukraine on investigations of interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and former Vice PresidentJoe Biden********************************** (Joe Biden)During deposition, official says he made several efforts to advocate for Marie YovanovitchBolton looms large as impeachment inquiry acceleratesGiuliani associate used small town in Ukraine to gain influence with American figures: reportMORE‘s son were impeachable offenses.

Gowdy responded that there was nothing improper about investigating election interference, saying “if a Democrat did that, we’d be adding some thing to Mount Rushmore. ”In response, Brennan noted that allegations that the Democratic National Committee’s hacked server is currently in Ukraine have been debunked.