Former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy famously rejected public congressional hearings as a "circus" and a "freak show," and he is not changing his tune now, even if Democrats are abusing the secret impeachment inquiry.
"I do understand the Republican frustration with the current investigation," Gowdy told CBS's "Face the Nation." "My bias has always been toward investigations that wait until the end before they share their conclusions. It's just not fair to do it on an hour-by-hour basis."
Gowdy rebuked Democrats for selective leaking during their secret impeachment inquiry.
"You can't pick and choose which aspects of due process you're going to use," Gowdy told host Margaret Brennan. "It's not just the privacy. I mean, the reason we respect executive branch investigations isn't because they're behind closed doors, it's because there are no leaks.
"I mean [special prosecutor] John Durham – you have no idea what John Durham has been doing. You have no idea what [DOJ IG] Michael Horowitz is going to say in his FISA report. There were no leaks with Bob Mueller.
"You contrast that with the fact that Adam Schiff has had more press conferences this weekend than those three men have had in their lives. He uses an opening statement to give a parody. He lies about a whistleblower. So yes, I prefer executive branch investigations because they're fact-centric, because you wait until the end to draw conclusions, and because there are no leaks."
Brennan was pressing Gowdy on his rejection of the public congressional hearings simultaneous with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of 2016 election meddling.
"Well, our private hearing was much more constructive than the public hearing," Gowdy said then. "I mean public hearings are a circus, Margaret. I mean that's why I don't like to do them. I don't do many of them. I mean they're . . . it's a freak show."
Gowdy's problem is not with the private nature of the impeachment inquiry but the predisposition of Democrats actively seeking impeachment and leaking anything that might make their case publicly.
"I'm a rule follower – so, I think if you're going to have private investigations with unlimited time for questioning and cross examining witnesses, that's a good thing," Gowdy said. "What's not a good thing is to have selective leaks where you pick one sentence out of an eight-hour deposition, run to a bank of microphones and try to prejudice the outcome of the investigation.
"Again, Horowitz doesn't do it. Durham doesn't do it. Mueller didn't do it. All three of those investigations we have respect for."
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