https://www.afr.com/news/world/north-america/chaos-in-congress-as-republicans-storm-closed-door-ukraine-hearing-20191023-p533ov Jacob GreberUnited States Correspondent Updated Oct 24, 2019 — 11.37am, first published at 7.05am Washington | A group of Republicans stormed a congressional committee hearing, disrupting an impeachment inquiry and preventing a Pentagon official from giving testimony. Egged on by Donald Trump, the group of about 30 lawmakers marched into a hearing room where a US defence official who oversees Ukraine and Russia, Laura Cooper, was about to give closed door evidence. The group began yelling, according to media reports, and refused to leave the secure room for five hours. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, centre, standing with other House Republicans, outside the area where witnesses are interviewed during the impeachment inquiry. AP The dramatic standoff – which shifted to high farce when Capitol police were called in to clear the room – a day after damning evidence was presented to the committee against the US President by his administration's recently appointed top envoy to Ukraine, Bill Taylor. Republicans announced their move on the committee room, saying the process was a sham. Mr Trump is battling an impeachment inquiry into evidence that he abused his powers to push Ukraine into investigating his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. Support among Americans for impeachment is expanding, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, hitting 55 per cent, its highest level since the process began. Some 43 per cent disapprove, down from 48 per cent last week, when support for impeachment was 46 per cent. The hearing stunt unfolded hours after Mr Trump demanded that his side harden up their attacks on the Democrats. "Republicans have to get tougher and fight," he said, referring to impeachment. Democrats are "vicious and they stick together". "It never ends. The Do Nothing Dems are terrible!" Trump wrote on Twitter earlier on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), later adding their "case is DEAD!". Mr Trump's growing warnings against his own side come as signs emerge of cracks among Republicans over the direction of the impeachment inquiry. John Thune, the second-most senior Republican in the Senate, said the "picture" emerging from Mr Taylor's testimony on Tuesday was "not a good one". "But I would say also that, again, until we have a process that allows for everybody to see this in full transparency; it's pretty hard to draw any hard, fast conclusions," Senator Thune said. Mr Trump later took to Twitter to rail against "people within the Trump administration" to "stop hiring Never Trumpers, who are worse than the Do Nothing Democrats". Never Trumpers are a group of conservative, often former Republicans, who refuse to support the president. The name stems from the 2016 presidential election. Republicans who entered the hearing room were criticised for bringing mobile phones into the area, compromising the so-called SCIF, or sensitive compartmented information facility. "They're freaked out. They're trying to stop this investigation," Democratic representative Ted Lieu said. "They don't want to hear from witness Cooper today. They know more facts are going to be delivered, which are absolutely damning to the President of the United States." Republican representative Mark Meadows told reporters of the situation in the hearing room: "There's about 20 members [lawmakers] down there, at least a dozen that are not on the three committees [leading the investigation]. And they're going to wait until there's a more open and transparent process." The witness who saw the events said the Republican lawmakers pushed past Capitol Police personnel and started yelling, voicing their objections to decisions made by the Democratic leaders of the House to hold depositions in closed sessions and to not release transcripts of the testimony. Republican representative Matt Gaetz, an outspoken Trump supporter who led Wednesday's action, had tried to enter the committee room last week but was turned away because he was not a member of any of the three committees leading the investigation. Democratic representative Eric Swalwell said the effort was designed to intimidate witnesses. "It's not going to work," he added. "We're not going to be deterred." Before the hearing room was stormed, dozens of House Republicans appeared before reporters, with some denouncing the impeachment process run by Democrats as a "joke", a "railroad job", a "charade", and "Soviet-style". They complained that testimony was being taken privately rather than in public hearings and that the House did not hold a vote formally authorising the investigation. "It is a sham, and it's time for it to end," Republican congressman Mark Walker said. With Reuters
bunch of attention whores trying to take the limelight away from Taylor. Ooh, let's storm a secure location with our cell phones on blast. but her emails they said...
Sham alright, a staffer for one of them said it was in his diary for a week. “No quid pro quo!” is the new "no collusion!" the Mueller trick repackaged.
Judge Napolitano: As frustrating as it is, Schiff is following the rules (set by the Republican majority in 2015).
From the video: "These are not the impeachment hearings, the impeachment hearings have to be held in public by the house Judiciary committee. This is the initial interview of witnesses to see what they have to say to determine whether or not they are even worthy of presenting evidence of impeachment." He earlier said that this phase under different rules was the same with Nixon and Clinton. It is similar to a grand jury which is always held in private.
Not so fast Sparky. Let's examine this. The key background question for viewers to be asking themselves is: Why is an impeachment hearing/inquiry being held before the House Intel Committee rather than the normal place which is/should be the House Judiciary Committee? The answer is because the Dems wanted to rig it so that they could apply the rules of House Intel Committe- which strictly limits disclosure- rather than the two sided action in the House Judiciary Committe. So Trey Gowdy may be properly quoted for matters that are properly before the Intel Committee but I dont think he is being quoted as saying that the matter should be heard there rather than before the Judiciary Committee. Kangaroo Court incarnate.
Could be in the ballpark except the Frog is wrong, it will move from "House Intel Committe- which strictly limits disclosure- rather than the two sided action in the House Judiciary Committe" shortly, this is the initial gathering phase to see if there is evidence enough for the Judiciary committee, similar to a grand jury (but not one).