Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Friday that the National Archives and former President Barack Obama are stonewalling the House Oversight Committee over the pseudonym emails used by Joe Biden when he was vice president.
"If there's nothing to hide, then release the roughly 5,400 emails and electronic records from the three alias accounts used by Biden," Donalds said on "Newsline." The emails are one of several crucial pieces of evidence that could go toward building an impeachment inquiry.
"I think that Barack Obama should just go ahead and release them and that's just what it should be," said Donalds, an Oversight Committee member.
The National Archives collected the communications in late June in response to an FOIA lawsuit, but missed the Aug. 31 deadline to turn them over to the committee, claiming they had sent them to Obama for his permission to release.
"It's quite interesting that the National Archives would need the authority of President Obama to release that information. But we already saw with the National Archives that they moved at warp speed to get authority from Joe Biden to go after classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, because that's exactly what happened," Donalds said.
Donalds said the committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has been fastidious every step of the way in its impeachment investigation.
"What we've been doing since we took back the majority is actually letting the evidence speak for itself," Donalds told "Newsline." "We've been following the evidence. We didn't walk in at the beginning of this Congress, saying, This is our mission, to impeach Joe Biden. That was not what the call was.
"The call was, We have suspicious activity reports. Let's evaluate them and see where they lead us. And we've done that every step of the way."
Donalds also had a reaction to the news that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is planning to run for reelection. Pelosi is 83 years old.
"You know what? I don't even get it anymore, some of these people," Donalds said. "Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress for decades now. She's not even speaker anymore. She's not even the Democrat leader anymore. I just don't get it. It's OK to move on and get fresh blood in our politics.
"But unfortunately, what we're seeing is that the older generation in Congress, they just don't seem to just let it go and move on with the rest of their lives. I think it's a bad thing for the country."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.