NEWT GINGRICH CALLS RECENT FEDERAL RULINGS AGAINST TRUMP A ‘JUDICIAL COUP D’ETAT’

But during the hearing, Democrats put pressure on Republicans over their and Trump’s recent calls to impeach judges who have ruled against his administration’s plans for mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, and slimming of the federal government.

During the hearing, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) asked when the impeachment articles against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who temporarily barred the administration from carrying out deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, introduced by Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), would be heard.

“Why don’t we just ask Chairman Issa or Chairman Jordan: When is the hearing on impeachment of Judge Boasberg?” Moskowitz asked. “When is the hearing? Give the American people a date.”

Moskowitz continued, “Oh wait, Chairman Issa says that this is actually a political symbol and not actual legislation. So it’s a fake impeachment. When are we going to tweet that out? That ought to be popular.”

The Florida Democrat was referencing an earlier exchange between Issa and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of the hearing’s witnesses, in which Issa asked whether when Gingrich was speaker, he saw “members of Congress put bills in of any sort because they were popular and felt strongly within their district whether or not they were moving anywhere?”

Gingrich replied that he had and affirmed when questioned further by Issa that such bills are “political symbols, not legislative symbols.”

The exchange between Issa and Gingrich signaled that the California Republican does not believe such measures will pass.

However, in response to Moscowitz’s comments, Issa said the committee takes “all bills that are referred to our committee seriously” and told the Democrat to be “careful what you wish for.”

“There will, in fact, undoubtedly be investigations of a number of judges, but we don’t predetermine them in this committee,” Issa said.

House Republicans have introduced several articles of impeachment against federal judges, including Boasberg, Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York, and Judges Amir Ali and John Bates of the District of Columbia.

Trump has also publicly called for the impeachment of federal judges such as Boasberg. However, the issue has divided Republicans, with House GOP leadership shying away from bringing it to a vote to open an inquiry.

At least two Senate Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Cornyn (R-TX), have voiced opposition to removing judges over disagreements with their rulings.

During the hearing, Issa expressed frustration that Democrats kept pressing impeachment rather than the panel’s focus on judicial overreach.

“It does seem interesting that when the shoe is on the other foot, everyone is self-righteous,” Issa said. “For the last three hours, I have had to listen to one side talking about impeachment as though it was the nature of this hearing. It is not.”

During the hearing, Gingrich said the numerous rulings against Trump’s executive orders were evidence of a “judicial coup d’etat.”

“Look, my judgment is as a historian: This is clearly a judicial coup d’etat,” Gingrich said. “You don’t have this many different judges issuing this many different nationwide injunctions, all of them coming from the same ideological and political background, and just assume it’s all random efforts of justice.”

The former House speaker and conservative political analyst argued that the rulings were “a clear effort to stop the scale of change that President Trump represents.”

But Democrats on the panel rejected the idea that federal judges were overreaching as their Republican counterparts suggested.

In his opening remarks, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) argued that although “federal courts have consistently moved against” Trump, it was because the president was overreaching.

CONGRESS MOVES ON JUDICIAL REFORMS THIS WEEK AS COURTS HALT TRUMP’S AGENDA

“There has been no semblance of due process or fairness in any of these cases,” Johnson said. “Trump acts first, he deports first, he revokes funding first, he blacklists law firms first, and then questions anyone who challenges him later. Somehow, in spite of this, we are here today to talk about the ‘overreach in the federal courts’, not the overreach of the executive branch official who is doing the overreaching.”

Only 15 judges have been impeached in U.S. history, and even fewer have been removed by the upper chamber. It is unlikely that any judge will be removed from the bench, as any measure would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to succeed.