Mark Meadows says impeachment by the House not "inevitable if you follow the facts"
Congressman Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina, said Sunday he does not believe it's "inevitable" the House of Representatives will impeach President Trump and predicted no House Republicans will join their Democratic counterparts if articles of impeachment are brought to a vote.
"I don't think it's inevitable if you follow the facts," Meadows, a close ally of Mr. Trump's, said Sunday on "Face the Nation."
House Democrats released the findings of their impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump's dealings with Ukraine in a 300-page report last week, which accused the president of placing "his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States."
The House Judiciary Committee then held its first public hearing of the impeachment probe Wednesday, which featured testimony from four constitutional scholars. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Democratic committee chairs to start drafting articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump, an indication the House will move forward with impeachment following weeks of hearings.
Members of the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, have spent the weekend meeting behind closed doors to determine the nature and number of articles of impeachment, which will be debated and then voted on by the full House.
When the House begins voting on articles of impeachment, Meadows said he doesn't "see a single Republican defecting," and suggested some Democrats may not vote to impeach the president on specific articles.
GOP lawmakers have "looked at the facts. They know where we are on this," Meadows, the former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said. "I think, if anything, there's more pressure on my Democrat colleagues where instead of having just two defections, we may have more than that coming up as the articles get voted on."
Meadows criticized House Democrats for selectively leaking information from their hours of closed-door depositions held with current and former administration officials about Mr. Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
"They've done it over and over and over again," he said. "That's not fair and should the president participate in an unfair process? Absolutely not. He'll get a fair process if it gets to the Senate."
The White House declined to participate in Wednesday's hearing alongside the four legal scholars, and said Friday it would not participate in future impeachment proceedings.
