Rep. Chris Stewart backs Trump over phone call with Ukraine leader

FILE - Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, talks with a student while campaigning at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Oct 16, 2018. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Democrats need to pump the brakes on calling for impeachment of President Donald Trump, Rep. Chris Stewart said Monday.

SALT LAKE CITY — Democrats need to pump the brakes on calling for impeachment of President Donald Trump over his July telephone call with the president of Ukraine that prompted a controversial whistleblower complaint, Rep. Chris Stewart said Monday.

The Utah Republican likened the fervor to Democrats last week wanting to impeach U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after a New York Times story about new accusations of sexual misconduct in his college days that the alleged victim doesn’t recall.

“The fact is we don’t know what happened here,” Stewart said on Fox News of Trump’s conversation with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Adam Schiff doesn’t know. Nancy Pelosi doesn’t know. The 87 Democrats running for president don’t know.”

“The fact is we don’t know what happened here.”

Democrats, Stewart said, have no credibility on the latest uproar.

Trump said Sunday that he had openly raised accusations of corruption against former vice president and 2020 candidate Joe Biden during the call with Zelensky. He said the phone call was “congratulatory” and that “corruption” of Biden was discussed.

Stewart, a member of House Intelligence Committee, backs Trump’s claim that there was nothing wrong with the conversation.

“President Trump is pretty clear. He didn’t have a quid pro quo. He had no promises,” he said.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, tweeted Sunday that disclosure of what Trump told the Ukrainian president is “critical” following the whistleblower’s complaint.

“If the President asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the facts to come out,” Romney said.

Democrats, including Biden, have called for a House investigation.

“Can you imagine putting Vice President Biden on the stand and asking him what his involvement is with interfering in this investigation in the Ukraine?” Stewart said. “I imagine it’s the last thing in the world that he wants to do.”

Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN on Sunday that impeachment may be “the only remedy” if it’s true that Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden. House Speaker Pelosi, D-Calif, has resisted impeachment hearings, though Democrats have turned up the heat another notch.

“She’s not a fool,” Stewart said, adding the speaker understands the political implications of impeachment and what it would do to her ability to lead.

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