“I don’t know why it would serve someone in the White House to manufacture a divide between the president and one of his best communicators during impeachment,“ Gaetz said in an interview.
When asked to respond to Gaetz’s allegations, Ueland did not comment directly on them. But he did mention Gaetz’s support for a House resolution to halt further U.S. military action against Iran. Gaetz had also lobbied some of his fellow House Republicans to back the measure after Democrats added one of his amendments, according to an email obtained by POLITICO and first reported by the Washington Post, which drew the ire of the White House.
“While the Trump administration was disappointed in Mr. Gaetz’s vote, the president’s successful policy to reduce Iranian terror and misbehavior proves the path laid out by the president is working,” Ueland said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Mr. Gaetz in the future.”
In response, Gaetz said: “He knows it’s House Democrats, not Iran, who are impeaching the president, right?”
“I thought ‘Legislative Affairs’ folks were supposed to help the president add friends — not extend silly fights with the president’s best friends,” Gaetz added.
Trump’s impeachment team was compiled with input from inside the White House and in consultation with Capitol Hill, according to one GOP official. And there was a desire to have an equal mix of House Judiciary members as well as lawmakers who participated in the closed-door depositions with impeachment witnesses, according to one Republican lawmaker familiar with the decision-making.
The GOP members who were ultimately tapped to serve on Trump’s impeachment team include Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, John Ratcliffe of Texas, Elise Stefanik of New York and Lee Zeldin of New York. While they won’t get a speaking role on the floor, they are expected to supplement the legal defense team’s message with TV appearances and press conferences.
Meadows had publicly lobbied for a number of Trump’s House allies, including Gaetz, a member of the Judiciary Committee, to join the team.
Source: politico.com
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