Republican Representative Ralph Norman reprimanded his Democratic colleague Jerry Nadler after he interrupted to correct him about Donald Trump’s conviction during a House Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday.
During his allotted time, Norman said that he spent hours of the hearing “listening to these smokescreens” from Democrats about Trump’s New York criminal trial where the former president was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“They bring up the trial of Donald Trump, a convicted felony. Really? By a judge that is a known anti-Trumper,” Norman said.
At that moment, Nadler interrupted to correct his colleague that he was not found guilty by a judge, a lie that Trump has amplified, but rather by a jury.
“A jury. A jury. Not by a judge,” Nadler said.
Norman angrily responded: “Mr. Nadler, I’ve got the floor. If you’re going to interrupt – Mr Chairman call him down when he interrupts. It’s my time and I’ll let you respond but I’m tired of this. You talk over everybody, it’s so rude.”
Tuesday’s hearing was to discuss potential rules for debate when considering a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio clips of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
Earlier this year, Hur released a summarized report of his investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents which were found at his home and office after leaving the White House in 2012.
Hur’s report included highly scrutinized accounts of President Biden’s memory after he insinuated the president was extremely forgetful.
During the hearing, Democrats accused Republicans of using the contempt of Congress accusation to distract the public from Trump’s recent conviction.
“This resolution may boost Donald Trump’s spirits before his sentencing for his conviction of 34 felonies, but it will certainly not convince the Department of Justice to produce the one remaining file in question,” Nadler told his colleagues.
Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said that his Republican colleagues were unfairly criticizing the Justice Department for targeting the former president despite that same agency investigating, indicting and trying the president’s son, Hunter Biden, on gun charges.
“How can any Republican in their right mind argue that the Biden administration is weaponizing the DOJ to hurt Republicans and to help Democrats? They just convicted the president’s own son,” McGovern said.
