Trump impeachment hearing History in the making and The key players

Republicans at the start of the first public hearing of Donald Trump’s impeachment investigation immediately pushed Democrats to hear from the anonymous whistleblower who sparked the inquiry.

As the drama in Washington unfolds, and a large cast of characters makes its way to the impeachment inquiry stage, keeping track of who is testifying during the public hearings and whom they are talking about is already getting complicated.

Much of the attention on House Resolution 660, adopted by House Democrats on Halloween to advance the impeach of President Donald Trump, has failed to note the significant differences with resolutions authorizing previous presidential impeachments.

There are consistencies in the process televised hearings, partisan rancor and memorable speeches but each impeachment process also stands alone as a reflection of the president, the Congress and the times.

Three years, tens of millions of dollars, countless partisan investigators, and ten phony accusations of obstruction of justice in his final report, and still unpersoning Mueller for failing in his “due diligence” to depose, indict, arrest, convict, imprison, execute, and launch Trump’s ashes into the flames of the sun.

For the duration of impeachment proceedings in opposition to ex-Presidents Richard Nixon and Invoice Clinton, knowledge and preliminary testimony from witnesses was attained in private and managed mostly by the vast majority celebration, Napolitano claimed Tuesday on “Your Globe.”

GOP Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas asked that the panel issue a subpoena for the still-unknown whistleblower to appear in closed session. But Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, denied the request Wednesday, saying it would be considered later. “We will do everything necessary to protect the whistleblower’s identity,” Schiff said.

The first witnesses, acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent, will testify in the enormous Ways and Means Committee room Wednesday morning, but the committee they will be appearing before is the Intelligence Committee.

In the legislation that 232 Democrats (and zero Republicans) passed two weeks ago, laying out rules for the public stage of the hearing, the investigative portion of the impeachment inquiry was placed in the Intelligence Committee’s hands. Though that committee’s reputation as the most bipartisan and professional on the House side has taken a hit in recent years, it is still relatively free of the bomb throwers and charlatans known to humiliate committee work in either the Oversight or Judiciary committees.

After Taylor and Kent make their opening statements, the next 90 minutes, according to the impeachment resolution, will be split equally for questioning between the committee chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, and its ranking member, Rep. Devin Nunes. These are much longer periods of questioning for the respective leaders than are common. There’s another twist: Schiff and Nunes may yield portions of their questioning time only to staff, and not to other members. Schiff, at least, has said that he intends to devote plenty of his 45 minutes to staff.

House Democrats have chosen to reject the example, counsel, and guidance of that experience and opted instead for a glaringly partisan, unbalanced, and novel process.