The Democrats are trying to turn Capitol Hill into a Halloween house of horrors for President Trump on Thursday, his Republican allies charged.
Like that one annoying neighbor who gives only pennies and dental floss, the Dems are about to fill Trump’s candy bag with something he definitely doesn’t want — a raft of new hearing rules designed to get him impeached.
“House Democrats are up to their same old tricks,” declared Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy.
“No treats.”
Republicans in the House of Representatives have little hope to stop their Democratic colleagues from passing a set of impeachment rules in the Thursday vote.
Those rules are a full-on fright show for the president’s defenders, as GOP lawmakers claim the plan impedes their ability to stand up for Trump.
“Trick or Treat would be an appropriate description of what is happening in the House of Horrors,” punned Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.).
Pelosi’s plan would put the House Intelligence Committee — and its chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff — at the forefront of the Democratic effort to probe Trump following his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The panel would hold public hearings into the allegation that Trump held up aid to Ukraine in order to get the nation to dig up dirt on political rivals — and it would be required to submit a report outlining its findings.
Republicans would have the right to question witnesses, but the GOP members of the committee could only issue subpoenas if Schiff agrees.
The Judiciary Committee — run by New York Rep. Jerry Nadler — would then determine if the entire House should vote on impeachment.
Several Republicans on Wednesday also sent a letter to Pelosi calling for a roll call vote on the measure, rather than electronic voting.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) wrote to the speaker: “Out of 330 million Americans, we are the 435 elected and trusted to make this decision on their behalf. They deserve to hear from our own voices rather than from a spreadsheet on the Clerk’s website.”
Electronic record voting “shields Members from having to stand before their colleagues, their constituents, and the world,” Babin argued.
Democrats defended the proposed rules by comparing them to a fact-finding grand jury.
“It’s very spooky to some people in the White House,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told The Post on Wednesday about the proposal.
“But I think it will be a good vote.”
The top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, during a speech Wednesday, attacked the impeachment probe resolution.
“Instead of setting a high bar, House Democrats seem determined to set a new low,” he said on the floor of the chamber.
The longtime Kentucky lawmaker added that Pelosi’s plan would deny the “most basic rights of due process” to Trump, such as having his lawyer participate in closed-door depositions by the committee.
Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly tangled with Schiff, attacking the California lawmaker for embellishing as he recounted Trump’s conversation with Zelensky during a hearing.
Schiff said afterward it was a failed attempt at humor.
The July conversation between Trump and Zelensky sparked a whistleblower complaint against the president — and pushed Pelosi to launch the impeachment probe.
The contents of the phone call spilled into public view after the White House released a reconstructed transcript of the conversation in a failed attempt to tamp down the scandal.
Democrats say the document confirmed the whistleblower’s allegations that Trump brought up US defense assistance to the embattled nation and suggested his counterpart “look into” the relationship between a Ukrainian natural gas company and Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
As she launched the probe, Pelosi said Trump’s actions amounted to a “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”
