Thread by @HeidiNBC

NEWS: Rep. Rooney, R-FL, voting against impeachment, says TRUMP AIDES SHOULD TESTIFY BEFORE THE SENATE

👉Via @NBCNews: Rooney is considered among few R’s who would consider impeachment but is voting against both articles today.

-->Detailed THREAD of why he’s voting NO:

@NBCNews --If we are to learn the truth, TRUMP AIDES NEED TO TESTIFY BEFORE THE SENATE:

“It bothers me, yes,” he said. “It’s making it hard on everybody… They seem to want to play this subpoena-executive privilege game.”

@NBCNews On Trump: “The guy’s conduct is not good,” he said, citing “beating up” on Yovanovitch, Zelensky & deprecating our foreign service officers “who are suffering great hardship.”

But if aides are digging in, you gotta “look beyond emotion” and “work through it” through the courts

@NBCNews --Rooney took this “very seriously,” did “exhaustive” research on Watergate, Clinton, talked to frmr White House counsels.
--Watergate is “the model” in forcing Nixon through the courts.

@NBCNews Even if that process delays testimony through the next election, Congress needs to “slow down” and get all the facts “so you can create a case for the American people.”

--Also imp because the Ukraine narrative is BOGUS and that needs to get out to the American people.

@NBCNews --Also, he agreed that everyone saw Trump, on the South Lawn, pressure Ukraine.

Asked if a President Biden could now call for investigations of Ivanka or anybody else? “All these are very bad precedents.”

--The remedy may just have to be the ballot box though, he said.

@NBCNews --Asked ab n’tl sec/historians & Webster (his friend) putting up flares: “He’s a good friend of mine. It’s not comfortable.”
“I don’t feel real great about anything about this at all,” he said.

Congress should get to work, including on this:

@NBCNews “We ought to be getting after those Russians for trying to influence our election.”

STOP