Dems only care about partisan attacks: Sen. Ted Cruz
The Senate is expected to begin an impeachment trial in January.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lashed out at two House committee chairmen on Sunday, saying they are only interested in partisan attacks and have no desire to fight corruption.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., "don't want to know what happened during Burisma. In fact, they say if you investigate what happened with Hunter Biden, that's a crime in progress," Cruz said on ABC's "This Week." The two chairmen appeared in an earlier segment in the show.
The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on impeachment this week, after the Judiciary Committee voted to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump last Friday.
If the House votes to impeach, the Senate is expected to take up an impeachment trial in January.
"I think this is the beginning of the end for this show trial that we have seen in the House. I think it's going to come to the Senate. We're going to have fair proceedings, and then it's not going anywhere because the facts aren't there," Cruz said.
Cruz said the proceeding deserves to be fair and witnesses should be part of the trial.
"I believe, if the president wants to call witnesses, and if the president wants to call Hunter Biden or wants to call the whistleblower, the Senate should allow the president to do so," Cruz told Stephanopoulos.
He continued, "We need to ensure that we're respecting due process, having a fair trial, listening to the facts and evidence, and I'm confident that once we do so, this show trial from the House, that proceeding will be over, and we'll leave it to the American people to have the choice to select who our leader should be."
Stephanopoulos pointed out to Cruz that earlier in the year "you actually said you wished the president wouldn't have gone down that road to look into the Bidens to call for investigations."
In October, Cruz acknowledged in an interview that foreign countries should stay out of U.S. elections and disapproved of Trump’s alleged comments to China about an investigation into Biden.
Cruz responded to Stephanopoulos, saying, "There's an appearance of impropriety, and that allows opponents to turn it into the circus we have seen, but what I also said is there are real evidence of corruption."
Cruz also argued that the narrative Democrats have pursued on impeachment has shifted since the proceedings began.
"They don't allege bribery. There's no article of impeachment on bribery, and the can impeach with zero evidence of a crime. They don't have to prove any federal law was violated," he said.
"The base, the far left of the House Democrats hate the president, and they're mad at the American people for electing him," Cruz added.
Cruz said in an interview last week that he sees no wrongdoing by the president when Trump spoke with the Ukrainian president by phone in July. He suggested the president was looking to investigate Ukrainian interference aimed at helping Hillary Clinton win the 2016 presidential election.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has disputed Cruz’s allegations. When asked if Ukraine directly interfered in the 2016 elections, Wray told ABC News' Pierre Thomas: "We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election."