Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Republicans will call Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who’s heading up the Democratic Party’s “sham” impeachment inquiry as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, as a fact witness.

In an appearance on Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” Gaetz continued his efforts to push back on the opposition party’s secret impeachment proceedings taking place in the basement of the U.S. Capitol, slamming the process as “totally antithetical to our constitutional principles.”

“The one mistake they’ve made — and I don’t know if they know this yet — Adam Schiff has now made himself a fact witness and we intend to call him [as a witness] in the Judiciary Committee,” the lawmaker said.

“He said he’s like the Ken Starr, he’s the independent counsel,” Gaetz said. “Well, if that’s true and he’s able to do this secretive investigation, then we have not only a right but an obligation to call Adam Schiff as a witness and [Rep.] Doug Collins said that’s precisely what we are going to do in the House Judiciary Committee.

“And then we’ll really see him squirm,” he added.

The current impeachment inquiry centers on the president’s call to Ukraine, and the whistleblower who raised concerns about the call had contacted Schiff’s staff on the House Intel Committee before filing a complaint.

A decision that could subject this individual to felony false statement charges for not disclosing that he had contacted Schiff.

A whistleblower who has ties to 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is at the center of the controversy.

And the whistleblower’s attorney has requested that he testify to Congress in writing, rather than appearing in person — if Democrats have him testify at all.

Collins, a Republican from Georgia, is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and he called Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s expected floor vote to formalize the impeachment process a “sham” — it’s not a formal vote on articles of impeachment, but a resolution detailing procedures.

Host Lou Dobbs set his sights on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has questioned whether due process is playing out in the effort seen by House Democrats and has pushed a Senate resolution condemning that process. An effort Dobbs sees as doing more harm than good.

“This vote is not a legitimate exercise in congressional oversight,” Gaetz responded. “We’re all for oversight and transparency, we think that ought to be the case if you’ve got a Republican or Democratic president, but what you see now is the conclusion before the development of facts.”

“That is what’s so troubling about Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi, they said Donald Trump was a Russian asset during the Russia hoax — they said they had more than circumstantial evidence that he engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia,” he continued. “And now on the Ukraine, they’re saying this is impeachable conduct before the first witness has spoken the first word out in public.”

Democrats only need a single Republican lawmaker to vote with them on Thursday to claim their campaign to unseat President Trump is a bipartisan effort, and Gaetz was adamant that GOP lawmakers should not give them that gift.

“I think that when you have Democrats putting the cart before the horse, it’s obviously transparent to the American people this is a sham process and not a single Republican should vote for this resolution,” he said. “If any Republicans vote for this in the coming days, then they have abandoned this president and have done a terrible thing, not only to the presidency and the Congress because they allowed us to cloak this totally illegitimate investigation with some sort of notion of legitimacy.”

Again, Dobbs went back to McConnell’s resolution, which has not been voted on, to ask if this would “be a validation of the process that the Democrats invoked upon?”

Gaetz skillfully avoided any criticism of the Senate majority leader, turning his focus back on the opposition party.

“These Democrats wanted to impeach the president before the ink was even dry on his election certificate,” he added. “But I am going to go and vote no, because I want my constituents and all Americans to know that I stand against this presidential harassment.”

“Instead of working on the things they promised, these Democrats are so obsessed with President Trump that they are trying to de-legitimize him because they can’t win a debate or election against him,” Gaetz concluded.

Bringing the segment to an end, Dobbs summarized, “I say efforts to overthrow this president by the radical Dems.”