Republicans have forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hand in bringing forth a vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump on Thursday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday.
A resolution introduced last week by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could lead Senate Republicans to "dismiss any phony impeachment from the House that failed to meet a key standard of fairness," Gingrich said in a Fox News opinion piece.
Gingrich, 76, is a Republican who represented Georgia from 1979 to 1999.
Graham and McConnell "are now poised to judge whether the Democrats' proposed rules represent real fairness and real bipartisanship or are simply more of the same dishonest, secretive, one-sided baloney [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam] Schiff [D-Calif.] has served up so far," Gingrich said.
He noted that during the 1973 impeachment of President Richard Nixon, House Democrats "developed a bipartisan set of rules" that "allowed the White House counsel to be present at all hearings, including those held in secret.
"They also allowed the Republican minority to offer subpoenas to bring in the witnesses they wanted in addition to the witnesses the Democrats wanted," Gingrich said.
House Republicans adopted similar rules during the 1998 impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
"So, there is a bipartisan precedent for a fair, orderly approach to the impeachment process," Gingrich said.
The onus, the former speaker said, is on Pelosi to bring forth a resolution that makes it "possible [that] the impeachment process will be back on a bipartisan track.
"If, however, Speaker Pelosi introduces a resolution to continue the secret kangaroo court-star chamber-partisan approach Rep. Adam Schiff has adopted, then the vote will be meaningless."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.