Dozens of House Republicans on Wednesday stormed a secure room in the basement of the U.S. Capitol where lawmakers were about to start an impeachment-related interview. The protest was billed as a demand for public impeachment proceedings. While more transparency would be a good thing, it’s not at all clear it would work to the advantage of President Trump or Republicans.
The Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees have been conducting interviews with key witnesses in the investigation into whether Trump withheld security aid to Ukraine as part of an effort to demand the country investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. While both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are able to ask questions, Democrats have only released opening statements from those testifying and selectively leaked parts of the testimony to media. They have eschewed public impeachment hearings in which everybody can see the testimony, and they have refused to release transcripts of the full interviews.
