House Intelligence Committee Begins Public Impeachment Hearings

Graphic by Martha Ramirez / The Corsair; Image credits: Architect of the Capitol via Flickr, Photographs of Adam Schiff and Devin Nunes courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Flickr, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

With closed-door dress rehearsals complete, Wednesday marked the opening night performance of the third public impeachment procedure in American history. The primary impeachment inquiry depositions took place last Wednesday and Friday regarding the alleged actions of President Donald J. Trump on Jul. 25, 2019. 

Thanks to the tip of an anonymous whistleblower, Democrats have begun an extensive investigation into relations between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky. The report asserted that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine in the hopes of forcing Zelensky to conduct public investigations into former Vice President and 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joseph Biden and his son Hunter.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues have argued that what took place constitutes prosecutable high crimes. 

Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee last Wednesday were acting ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and senior State Department official George Kent. Two days later, former Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovich, spoke in front of the committee. 

Democratic representative and chairman of the Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff opened the proceedings with a statement elaborating on the importance of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and the significance of the hearings to follow. 

Ranking Republican Devin Nunes followed Schiff’s statement with an argument that has since acted as the foundation to the conservative counterargument. 

“Democrats have been vowing to oust President Trump since the day he was elected… and his phone call with President Zelensky was used as an excuse to fulfill their Watergate fantasy,” Nunes stated. 

The Wednesday opening statements preceded testimony from Ambassador Taylor and State Department official Kent. Both witnesses gave recounts from prepared statements, followed by controlled questioning from both parties. 

Taylor and Kent avoided questions designed to reveal their political affiliations. Kent repeatedly said, “I am a non-partisan career foreign officer who has served five presidents, three Republican, and two Democrat.”

Congressman Jim Jordan drove home two essential arguments from the Republican Party. He told Taylor that he’s “seen church prayer chains that are easier to understand than [your testimony].” Furthermore, Jordan argued the entire process should be abandoned because the alleged bribe “was not completed.”

Democrats were fast to respond, however. Congressman Julian Castro asked Taylor several simple questions including, “Is attempted murder a crime?” and “Is attempted robbery a crime?” Taylor responded with a chuckle, saying, “I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll go out on a limb and say yes.” The smile quickly fled his face when Castro responded, “Okay, then is attempted extortion and bribery a crime?” 

Wednesday’s proceedings illustrated elements of both parties’ goals: Republicans sought to paint the proceedings as a “witch-hunt” and Democrats hoped to corroborate the whistleblower's claims.

Friday’s opening statements made it evident that both parties were going to stand their ground. The testimony of former ambassador Yovanovich continued to corroborate the whistleblower’s claims.

SMC student Brian Zargar, who describes himself as a socialist, says “honestly they should just impeach him already. It’s taking too long.” 

Some students believe the Democrats are acting in a very responsible manner. “I think they’re taking it in a very logical direction, which is what we should be expecting,” said David Alcherlian.

Zargar commented the Republican approach to these proceedings are “akin to biting the head off a live chicken and letting it run around.”

Physiology major Joey Ritter thought differently of the proceedings, however, saying, “they didn’t interview anyone I cared to hear from… I don’t care what a person removed four times from Trump has to say… I don’t think this is an actual attempt at impeachment, I believe the democrats are just trying to put out bad press… before 2020,” Ritter added.

In an unrelated press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Speaker Pelosi commented, “it was a successful day for truth… the devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery.” 

Responding to accusations of a witch-hunt and biased prosecution, Pelosi simply said, “None of us came to Congress to impeach a president. This is something we do with a heavy heart.”