Trump is 'grasping at straws' because Republicans are refusing to defend his Ukraine corruption: Ex-House Intel staffer

On CNN Saturday, former House Intelligence Committee staffer and Third Way National Security Program Vice President Mieke Eoyang laid into President Donald Trump for going after Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) — and walked through the process his committee has used to hold the president accountable.

"Clearly the president, in your view, and his allies, are going to great lengths to discredit Schiff and the committee leading this inquiry," said anchor Fredricka Whitfield. "But is it your view that this strategy is backfiring, because it seems like the president is just digging in his heels, and his supporters are too?"

"I think the president's really grasping at straws, and you can tell because Republicans have increasingly refused to come out to defend him," said Eoyang. "So even though he may fill the airways with this kind of attack, he's not winning any allies. He's not winning any support, which he will need when it comes to a vote in Congress."

"Mieke, as someone who's lead a committee, what does this process look behind the scenes, especially when you have the president say to a House speaker, put this to a vote, put this inquiry to a House vote. What are kind of the machinations happening?"

"So what you see happening in the House and you can see this from the letters released, you've got many committees working together to gather evidence," said Eoyang. "They're talking to witnesses beyond just what the whistleblower said and beyond the transcript that the White House has released, people who witnessed what was happening, who can tell you what was the tone when the president said things to the president of Ukraine, what were the side conversations that helped Ukrainians understand what was going on, and also looking at where is the money? How did money flow around in this circumstance? And Chairman Schiff hired a bunch of investigators who are specialized in this area. So I think you can see them very carefully and methodically building a case about the president's actions."

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