House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday previewed this week’s hearings in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump by predicting that Democrats will want to move toward whatever focus groups tell them is more politically palatable.
“You know what you’ll find is the same thing we found before: the Democrats are not concerned about facts - only focus groups,” Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said on “Fox & Friends.”
“We’re not sure what word they’ll use today [because] they change it from ’quid pro quo’ to bribery - whatever the focus group tells them is where they’ll want to continue to move,” he said.
That’s a reference to recent reports that House Democrats’ campaign arm tested focus groups that reacted more strongly to “bribery” on the part of Mr. Trump, which Democrats are now emphasizing, compared to the phrase “quid pro quo.”
The House is set to hear from more witnesses this week as lawmakers investigate whether the president improperly withheld military aid to Ukraine in exchange for a public announcement from the country’s leaders that they would launch anti-corruption investigations, including into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
“What we’re finding here is the president did nothing wrong. The president released funding for Ukraine,” Mr. McCarthy said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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