WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., questioned the fairness of the House's impeachment inquiry Friday, portraying it as an illegitimate effort to remove President Donald Trump from office.
A member of the House Intelligence Committee, Crawford said he left his Jonesboro home about 3:45 a.m. Friday so he could catch a 6 a.m. flight from Memphis to Washington, arriving just in time to witness the questioning of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.
What he heard didn't sway him, he said.
"It's a dog-and-pony show. There's no way this can be taken seriously," he said, after emerging from the room.
An unnamed whistleblower has accused the president of pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
The aim, critics say, was to undermine a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. On Thursday, Trump asked once again for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, making a similar appeal to China as well.
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Crawford defended the propriety of Trump's requests.
"It's not inappropriate at all," he said. "There's nothing extralegal about that."
"We have treaties with both those countries," he said. "Those treaties provide for mutual legal assistance in criminal matters."
In a telephone interview, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Michael John Gray said Crawford should not be defending the president's actions.
"This is not a case of the president asking for countries to help root out corruption. This is singling out one person who happens to be the son of [the candidate] who he sees as a chief rival in the upcoming election," Gray said. "It's not normal. It's not acceptable."
No prosecutor has brought charges against the Bidens; no grand jury has indicted them. No independent arbiter has weighed in. Still, Trump has insisted that their dealings be closely scrutinized, telling reporters Wednesday that "Biden and his son are stone-cold crooked."
Asked whether he'd seen any "evidence of abuse of power" by Trump, Crawford said, "Not a bit."
In addition, he dismissed claims that Trump had withheld military aid from Ukraine as the president pushed the country to open an investigation into the Bidens.
"It may have been delayed, but it wasn't withheld," Crawford said. "We see this kind of thing all the time in other countries that we deal with so I don't think there was anything out of the ordinary with regard to that."
Efforts to remove Trump from office will fail, Crawford predicted.
"First off, there's no grounds for it," he said.
"I really think that the case is sort of self-destructing now, kind of unraveling," he said. "The substance is just not there."
If Democrats want to end the Trump presidency, they'll have to do so at the ballot box, Crawford said.
"They don't like the president. I get it. But when 2020 rolls around you'll have a chance to make your voice heard," he said. "Until then, let's get back to governing. I mean, let's do the things that we're sent here to do. I think this is just a gross waste of time. If you've got better ideas about how you want to govern, put those forward and let the American people decide who's the most responsible and who ought to be in charge."
Friday was Crawford's first trip to the Capitol in more than two weeks. Injured while preparing to participate in the biennial Congressional Football Game, he is gradually recovering from a broken fibula and a strained medial collateral ligament.
Walking slowly, he said his knee still smarts.
"By the end of the day it's hurting pretty good. I'm trying to stay off of it as much as I can," he said.
Crawford said he isn't sure yet if House Intelligence Committee members will be summoned back to Washington next week.
Lawmakers are in the midst of their October recess; they're not scheduled to return to Capitol Hill until after Columbus Day, Oct. 14.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asked other members of the state's all-Republican congressional delegation whether they believe Trump's appeals to Ukraine and China are appropriate.
"Everyone would have a different opinion as to whether that is appropriate," U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Rogers said through a spokesman. "I wouldn't necessarily approach it the way the president did, but nothing I have seen rises to an impeachable offense. I do believe the allegations against the Bidens are serious and that we need to learn more about them."
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, also from Rogers, expressed misgivings about the China outreach.
"There are real concerns with the claims against the Bidens, but I wouldn't involve a strategic adversary in the situation," he said through a spokesman.
Spokesmen for U.S. Reps. French Hill of Little Rock and Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs said they hadn't had a chance to obtain a comment from their bosses. A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle said she hadn't been able to get a comment, citing his travel schedule.
A Section on 10/05/2019