Former President George W. Bush officials Andy Card and Colin Powell are now sounding off President Trump’s attempt to strong-arm foreign governments to manufacture dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and lending credence into Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
During an “MSNBC Live” segment Monday morning, former Bush White House chief of staff Andy Card said that the impeachment inquiry was “warranted.” However, Card said he thought Trump’s call for China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter was “frivolous.”
When asked about why he views Trump’s China comment as not “a serious request,” Card responded that he thinks the President “speaks with hyperbole far too much.”
“He wants you to come in to see the freak show,” Card said. “So I don’t always agree with what he says and how he says it — I wish he would be more careful with the language he uses, the tweets he sends out. But I do think that an impeachment inquiry is warranted. Clearly, lines have been crossed.”
A number of elected Republicans have jumped on the Trump-was-just-kidding bandwagon after Trump publicly called on China to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter.
However, Card held off on declaring whether Trump committed an impeachable offense, echoing the reactions of Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) last week when asked about Trump’s call for China to investigate the Bidens.
“We don’t know yet, because most people in Congress have already made up their mind when they haven’t seen any evidence,” Card said. “I want people to calm down, take a look at it. Don’t call a molehill a mountain. They tend to do that. There’s hyperbole on both sides.”
Card said that because impeachment is a “serious process,” he wants to help Trump “do his job because he’s our President.”
“I also don’t want him to be distracted by others who are trying to undermine him,” Card said. “And I do want the impeach process, if it’s going to go forward, to be done deliberately — without hyperbole, without exaggeration — and see where it leads based on the facts. Don’t make it about politics.”
Watch Card’s remarks below:
Andy Card, former chief of staff for President George W. Bush: Impeachment inquiry is "warranted" pic.twitter.com/eTjV12A7UN
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 7, 2019
Card made his comments just hours after the New York Times reported Monday morning that 10 former White House chiefs of staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama called the idea of the White House outright asking for political help from other countries “out of bounds.” Card was one of the chiefs of staff who spoke to the Times.
Card’s comments also come on the heels of former Secretary of State Colin Powell saying that the Republican Party “has got to get a grip on itself” in light of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry during a CNN segment Sunday.
The former Bush official didn’t outright endorse the impeachment inquiry but he tore into the GOP by arguing that its leaders “are holding back because they’re terrified of what will happen to any one of them if they speak out.”
“Will they lose a primary? I don’t know why that’s such a disaster, but will they lose a primary?” Powell said. “We’ve got to remember that the Constitution started with, ‘We the People,’ not ‘Me the President.’”
Watch Powell’s remarks below:
Colin Powell: The GOP "has got to get a grip on itself." pic.twitter.com/2kaFdRvqpr
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 7, 2019
