House aims to stop Republican stunts as impeachment vote approaches

As the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump moves toward the public phase, Democrats are preparing to face an onslaught of stunts from Republicans attempting to slow down or hamper the proceedings in order to protect their leader, the Daily Beast reported.

House Republicans have already waged a handful of stunts already.

They started last week, when Republicans stormed into a secure area of the Capitol to try and block a deposition, endangering national security in the process.

On Tuesday, House Republicans tried to shut down other hearings happening on Capitol Hill because they said it was unfair to hold those other hearings when an impeachment deposition was taking place. (There are always been numerous hearings happening simultaneously on Capitol Hill, making this argument silly.)

And Democrats on Tuesday said Republicans were attempting to out the name of the whistleblower during a deposition with Alexander Vindman, a decorated lieutenant colonel who was testifying that he was deeply uncomfortable with Trump’s behavior towards Ukraine.

All of these stunts took place while the House was holding closed-door depositions.

But now, the House plans to take the inquiry public, with a vote planned for Thursday laying out the ground rules for the investigation.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — led by Chair Adam Schiff — will conduct the hearings. And the ranking member on the committee, California Republican and top Trump sycophant Rep. Devin Nunes, will have to have any witnesses or evidence Republicans want to bring cleared by Schiff.

This could help tamp down on stunts from Republicans like Nunes, who ran a sham investigation into Trump’s Russia ties before Democrats took back the majority in 2018. A top aide for Nunes has also been trying to out the whistleblower, whose complaint kicked off the impeachment inquiry in the first place.

Democrats told the Daily Beast that they hope the rules they are laying out for impeachment will stop the stunts.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.