MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Sunday lashed out at Republicans for defending Donald Trump amid the Democrat-led House impeachment inquiry after GOP Congressman Doug Collins appeared on Fox News Sunday to assert that he doesn't believe the president did anything wrong with Ukraine.
"If you believed that the president had used the power of his office to try to get Ukraine to interfere with our elections, if you believed that, would that be an impeachable offence?" Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked Collins earlier on Sunday.
"I do not believe that so I'm not going to answer a hypothetical which is designed to simply say the president did something improper," the Republican congressman said, "Chris, he did nothing improper, there was nothing about a problematic giving aid to another country in which you're talking about corruption, which he's required to do by law."
In response, Scarborough, a former Florida GOP congressman, suggested that Collins' remarks demonstrated a lack of intelligence among the Republican Party. "The collective IQ of Republican politicians falls further every time one desperately tries to defend the indefensible: a politician who delayed military aid approved for an invaded military ally so he could extort campaign dirt on a political opponent," the MSNBC host tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
The collective IQ of Republican politicians falls further every time one desperately tries to defend the indefensible:
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) December 1, 2019
a politician who delayed military aid approved for an invaded military ally so he could extort campaign dirt on a political opponent. https://t.co/HHQmnSb8qm
Wallace asked Collins during his appearance on Sunday whether Trump's White House counsel will participate in the impeachment process and mount a defense. "I think we're still looking at that, but I have a question for you Chris: why would they want to participate in just another rerun?" the Georgia lawmaker said. "We're back here again, by the way, in rerun season here in the Judiciary Committee."
"We've already had constitutional scholars in the committee talking about the Mueller report and others [asking], 'Is there an impeachable offense?' This is a complete American waste of time right here," he continued. "The problem is [Democratic House Judiciary Committee Chairman] Jerry Nadler and the rest of them have already [made up their] mind. They're already writing the articles of impeachment, whether they have any fairness, process."
Collins continued to rebuke the impeachment proceedings by accusing Democrats of attempting to "overturn" the votes cast by nearly 63 million Americans for Trump in 2016.
"I think the problem here is the [Democrats] are on a timeframe to try and finish this out by the end of the year," Collins added. "Because they want to get at this president, right now, before everybody sees through this process sham [ahead of] the elections next year."
