Raskin said GOP doesn’t have smoking gun or ‘dripping water pistol’ in impeachment quest

The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), used Republicans’ own words against them and sought to subpoena Rudy Giuliani in an effort to undercut the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

In a lengthy opening statement replete with numerous props, including a countdown clock pointing to the pending government shutdown, Raskin cast the inquiry as being ignited by former President Trump while highlighting lingering doubts among a number of Republicans. 

“If Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today. They’ve got nothing on President Joe Biden. All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump launched five years ago. The Burisma conspiracy theory, a fairytale so preposterous that one of the main authors, Lev Parnas, has now disowned and repudiated it,” Raskin said, nodding to a former associate of Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer to Trump.

Much of Raskin’s statement focused on infighting among House Republicans. He displayed a series of comments from GOP lawmakers complaining about right-wing colleagues holding up a vote to fund the government.

“They don’t have a shred of evidence against President Biden. Do you think I’m being harsh? Here’s what some Republicans had to say over the last week about the actions of the Republicans,” Raskin said, displaying a smattering of quotes on a poster board.

He also displayed a snippet from an op-ed from Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) saying “what’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption.” 

Raskin closed his opening remarks by trying to force a vote to subpoena Giuliani and Parnas, who earlier this year wrote a letter saying his investigation into Burisma was “nothing more than a wild goose chase” that has been “debunked again and again.”

Raskin made the motion calling Giuliani and Parnas the originators “of the lie on which this sham impeachment is based and who worked to spread it.”  

The effort was blocked by the committee’s Republicans.