Fox guest Ken Starr: “There is too much of a rush toward impeachment”
Starr: “This is the pattern that we have gotten into since the Nixon years”
Published
Citation From the November 6, 2019, edition of Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto
KEN STARR: Extortion shakedown is usually something that the victim complains about. Right? To say, I am being extorted. And of course, we are not hearing that or anything close to it. So I think what is being seen here is the expansive, capacious definition of high crimes of impeachment, and high crimes and misdemeanors. We disapprove of what the President did, of his style, of his putting pressure, I’m just accepting that was the meta-narrative. We think that that result should justify his removal from office. I think that is an extravagant anti-historical approach. But the House of Representatives has the raw power to define an impeachable offense. And that’s what we’re hearing. I don't think it is impeachable. Someone says “I think it is impeachable.”
NEIL CAVUTO (HOST): You know, Ken, when you were going investigating Bill Clinton, you obviously found the Monica Lewinsky thing, the President lying under oath, perjuring himself.
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Today, the same thing. The very different potential impeachment cases here. But that it does not rise to the level -- even the president lying under oath at least in the Senate's view rise to the level that he should be thrown out of office. I am hearing similar things on this quid pro quo thing. That even if true, it does not rise to the level of throwing Donald Trump out of office. What do you think?
KEN STARR: Yes, well I think that is the wiser judgment. There is too much of a rush toward impeachment. This is the pattern that we have gotten into since the Nixon years. And the passage of the independent counsel office actually called upon folks like me to go forward to Congress and say. “Guess what? Here's information. You may want to impeach the President of the United States.” That's is a horrible system of government. People say "well why did you become an independent counsel if you know it is a horrible system of government?" You need to get me on another day about that, but it is. It is a horrible regime. We have this pro-impeachment engine -- that has been created. Robert Mueller, bless his heart, a good man, fuels the fire further by the way he approached his job, and by the way he approached his report writing responsibilities. So we are living in impeachment land and we need to get this in the rearview mirror as a country.