Nearly six months after Republicans held their first public impeachment hearing alleging misconduct by President Joe Biden, their effort has failed to gain traction.
In that time, one of the most outspoken members of Congress challenging the GOP-led investigation has been Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York freshman Democrat.
“The only thing that surprised me about the last six months is that we're still talking about it six months later,” Goldman said Wednesday. "It's remarkable that we're still at this."
Spectrum News NY1 spoke with Goldman just steps away from the door to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform room, where he and other lawmakers were hearing from the latest batch of witnesses in the impeachment investigation.
Goldman thinks the probe into Biden should have wrapped up long ago.
“This is now just abusive. And it's an effort to try to publicly humiliate Hunter Biden, again and again and again,” Goldman said. “It's an effort to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden and try to apply it to his father.”
Goldman is a frequent guest on cable news, pushing back against GOP claims. In public hearings, he has jousted with Republicans.
"They simply just don't have the facts," he told reporters in December.
When the Committee on Oversight and Reform has conducted private depositions, Goldman has often gone to the microphones outside, eager to frame what was being said beyond the reach of the cameras. At Wednesday’s hearing, a witness called out the New Yorker during his opening statement.
“Mr. Goldman, a former prosecutor with the [United States District Court for the Southern District of New York], will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies,” said Tony Bobulinski, a GOP witness.
Goldman is no stranger to impeachments. He was lead counsel for House Democrats during the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump. He now is, of course, participating in a different role.
He accuses Republicans of doing the investigation backwards, alleging wrongdoing and then tying to fill in the facts and evidence.
“That’s exactly the opposite of how any investigation should be done,” Goldman said. “That's exactly the opposite of how we did the 2019 Ukraine impeachment investigation.”
Goldman credits the committee staff and the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, with coordinating their efforts. And he praised his fellow freshmen Democrats on the panel, saying they have been able to work well off each other.