Today, one day after the devastating-to-Trump testimony of William Taylor in the impeachment inquiry, a group of Trump-loving Republicans decided to storm today’s hearing and seriously breach security under a pretext of caring about transparency. Fox News helped legitimize the charade.
The Washington Post explains:
The planned impeachment testimony from a Pentagon official responsible for Ukraine policy was delayed Wednesday after several of President Trump’s congressional allies staged a demonstration against the probe and barged into a secure facility on Capitol Hill.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper was due to speak at 10 a.m. in a closed-door session about the mechanics of U.S. security assistance for Ukraine and the fallout from the White House’s decision to withhold it for several months over the summer. But her session was disrupted as it was about to begin, with conservative lawmakers refusing to leave the specially protected room known as a SCIF where impeachment witnesses have met with lawmakers.
Those supposedly high-minded Republicans didn’t seem to mind that they committed serious security breaches with their stunt.
Such behavior doesn’t exactly make for a good argument that Republicans are only interested in a sober, deliberative impeachment inquiry.
But Fox News’ “straight news” America’s Newsroom show ignored that as well as the convenient timing of the stunt one day after Taylor’s bombshell testimony demolished Republican excuses for Ukraine extortion.
Co-anchor Sandra Smith said about the Republicans, “They are there to demand increased transparency and they want to be included in the impeachment process from House Democrats.”
FACT CHECK: Republicans on all three committees involved in the inquiry are included in the hearings. No members from either party not on the committees are allowed. Neither Smith nor co-anchor Bill Hemmer pointed that out. Nor did any of the three guests.
Guest Cheryl Casone, a Fox Business host, was not entirely on board with the stunt. “Some sensitive things are being brought about and talked about in these meetings. I’m actually still a fan of protecting the intelligence community and some of these that are testifying,” she said. Nevertheless, she helped minimize the Republican misbehavior as a “mixed bag.” Claiming that the spin from both sides makes it “really hard for any of us to get the truth,” she asked, “Do you really want to expose the intelligence community on one side or do you want transparency on the impeachment inquiry?”
The lone Democrat on the panel, former Senator Robert Toricelli (he left the Senate after an ethics scandal) looked like he was more interested in a Fox News contract than in advocating for Democrats. He never pointed out that there will be public hearings, that the investigation is no more secret than the Clinton impeachment investigation nor how the Republicans were breaching security in their conveniently-timed overwhelming desire for integrity in process.
Instead, Toricelli legitimized the obstruction by suggesting that Democrats are the real wrongdoers:
TORICELLI: Part of it is what’s the objective here? Is the goal here of the Democrats in Congress to inflict as much political damage on the president as possible going into an election year or actually remove him from office? I would have argued that if the goal was really impeachment, they would have passed a resolution ensuring that all sides had equal rights, the process was fully followed so we did not have the argument over process.
Toricelli acknowledged that the impeachment hearings have caused “political damage” to Trump but he undercut the seriousness of Taylor’s testimony with a White House talking point: “Everything said yesterday was hearsay.”
There were even some good words for Rudy Giuliani.
TORICELLI: I am glad we’ve gotten past the issue of – at least, I think much of America has – the issue of Rudy Giuliani not being a diplomat carrying messages. The United States has been doing that since there was a republic and presidents are not bound to use official diplomats to convey messages and in the world of instant communication that’s going to happen more and more. Nobody was complaining when John Kennedy used a journalist to help settle the Cuban missile crisis.
Hello, Mr. Toricelli! Did you not notice that far from helping the U.S. settle a missile crisis, Giuliani is oozing corruption?
But Toricelli had “something that troubles me more.” That was his concern that Trump might be wrongly impeached. “We cannot impeach presidents because we disagree on policy or even implementation of policy or even the misuse of policy,” Toricelli said.
That delighted Republican guest Brad Blakeman. “I hope Democrats are listening to the senator. I mean, you said it perfectly,” Blakeman said.
Blakeman went on to say, “The abuse that is happening now in the House far exceeds any crimes that are alleged against this president.”
FACT CHECK: That’s not true because the Constitution lets the House of Representatives set the rules for the impeachment process. But nobody pointed out the falsehood.
Surprisingly, as the discussion moved on, Torricelli suggested that Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be a more successful presidential candidate than Joe Biden.
Watch Fox News pretend Republicans acted in good faith below, from the October 23, 2019 America’s Newsroom.
Anyhow, I’m sensing the presence of cracks in the armour because increasing numbers of people with a GOP background are appearing on CNN, Al Jazeera, BBC (when they can get off Brexit) and France24. And very few of them are toeing the line.
Notice they don’t mention the huge difference between Clinton/Nixon is this impeachment inquiry lacks an independent council. Since these hearings are filling that void, they are closed door.
Notice Fox News never uses the term “bipartisan” referencing the hearings.
Notice they don’t mention Shiff promises public hearings to inform the nation after these closed door investigative sessions.
Notice they don’t mention the Democrats have already said this process will extend to December (previously Thanksgiving). So when the panel says anything past early November is a disaster they’re deliberately setting it up for failure.
Like all Fox News political analysis this is total crap.