House Democrats were, by and large, somewhat quicker to respond to the release of the House Intelligence Committee's report on Donald Trump’s extortion campaign against Ukraine than were Republicans. It’s actually somewhat surprising, since Republicans just came up with their same old talking points, process whining, and lies, while at least some Democrats actually looked at the report.
“The report released by the House Intelligence Committee is damning,” Rep. Donna Shalala of Florida tweeted. “The report makes it clear that President Trump's actions abused the power of his office, threatened our national security, and undermined the integrity of our democracy. He must be held accountable.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia both quoted the passage saying that Trump ”placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security.”
“The newly disclosed phone calls in the House Intelligence Committee Report further confirm the testimony of Ambassador Sondland,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California tweeted. Specifically, the testimony that "Everybody knew what we were doing and why" and "Everyone was in the loop."
In the judgment of Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, Trump “abused his power, betrayed his oath, and endangered our national security.” According to Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California the report shows “overwhelming evidence that President Trump used the powers of the Presidency to ask for foreign interference in an American election.”
“Man. The Republican culture of corruption under this President keeps getting worse and worse,” wrote Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York joked—or at least half-joked—“How long before Trumps say he doesn't know Giuliani, but he hears he's a very good guy?”
Republicans, unsurprisingly, stuck to their talking points. (Yes, the false ones, too.) House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy whined about process. Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina claimed that “they're still heavily relying on statements from Gordon Sondland, who admitted—point blank—that he had zero firsthand evidence.” Uh, they have a little bit more than Sondland, dude.
Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York did some serious projection, claiming that “Schiff’s impeachment parody should start with ‘Once upon a time...’. He’s so desperate to connect dots that aren’t actually connected, often relying on many hand hearsay, guesses, assumptions & outright lies. It’s the worst kind of bad faith story time I’ve ever seen in Congress.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida called the report a “novella built on conjecture and presumption” that “offers no startling revelations, and nothing that fulfills Speaker Pelosi's promise of a bipartisan impeachment process.” Matt, Matt, Matt. 1) There are startling revelations here and some of them point to your colleague Rep. Devin Nunes. 2) Remember when a Republican came out for impeachment and y’all drummed him out of the party? Do you think that kind of bullying and intimidation is maybe one reason this isn’t bipartisan? (Except to the extent that a former Republican supports it.)