North New Castle News

As President Donald Trump has encouraged Republican legislators to collectively fight the impeachment inquiry, a first-term congressman from Florida recently discussed his efforts to see testimony of Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker.

Rep. Michael Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, granted the interview to Ari Shapiro on National Public Radio (NPR).

”I've been asking for three weeks now, to no success, to have access to Kurt Volker, the Ukraine envoy's, testimony. So I find that incredibly frustrating – frankly, infuriating,” Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Daytona Beach, said in an interview with Ari Shapiro on National Public Radio (NPR).

“In the meantime, I'm reading about and hearing about on your show and others other testimony that is being leaked, real-time, to folks that seem to be less favorable – or, I should say, favorable to the narrative that (House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Calif. Rep. Adam Schiff [D-Beverly Hills], and (House) Speaker [Calif. Rep. Nancy] Pelosi [D-San Francisco] want out there,” Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said.

Waltz said that during the first round of impeachment proceedings, he was unsuccessful in his attempts to see Volker’s testimony, “but yet you see [Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine] Bill Taylor's almost in real time and on the front page of papers.”

“I am trying as a voting member of Congress to get access to the evidence. So I hope you're asking these same difficult questions of Schiff – of why he's not allowing me and others access to the information,” Waltz said.

When asked by Shapiro, Waltz defended the president. 

“From what I have seen thus far – and we've seen the actual transcripts – I do not see anything that rises to the level of bribery, treason or a high crime and misdemeanor,” Waltz said.

NPR included a soundbite of Trump’s entreaty to GOP members during the interview. 

“The Republicans have to get tougher and fight. We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats have tried to hurt the Republican Party for the election,” Trump said.