A top House GOP leader Thursday told Democrats Thursday that they should impeach the president.

In an interview with MSNBC reporter Kasie Hunt, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said that if Democrats want the opportunity to ask administration officials like Attorney General William Barr tough questions, they should bring articles of impeachment against the president.

But Collins doesn't think the majority party has the courage to do that.

"They wanted it to play out this way because they want it to look like an impeachment hearing," said Collins. "But they don't have the fortitude to bring impeachment."

WATCH: When @RepDougCollins, ranking member of @HouseJudiciary, make case for why Democrats should start impeachment hearings. pic.twitter.com/BuJDDXMMoH — Common Dreams (@commondreams) May 2, 2019

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox.







Barr refused to testify in front of the committee Thursday morning, apparently in reaction to committee Democrats' intention to have staff attorneys question him. The attorney general also did not abide by a subpoena from committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) for the full, un-redacted Mueller Report.

Collins said that using staff attorneys was a major break from precedent from regular hearings and told Hunt that if Democrats wanted to go down that road, they should take the next step and go for impeachment.

According to Collins, impeachment is the easiest way to have unfettered access to the materials Democrats want.

"If [Nadler] would bring impeachment hearings," said Collins, "he would have access to all kinds of documents, irregardless (sic) of what the attorney general's accommodations have already made for him."