Partisanship creates stronghold in impeachment hearing

Partisan stronghold over impeachment process hovers as public impeachment hearing starts

(The Slice): "The impeachment hearing is based on a constitutional standard and needs to run its course," Mayor Pete Buttigieg stated recently about the GOP push back as the challenge to presidency of Donald J. Trump.

These are empty words to House Republicans who are seemingly ignoring the fact that the Democratic run House has the authority to establish the rules for the impeachment process, a privilege that goes to the party that holds the majority in the chamber -- in this case, the Democrats. Republicans generally view the impeachment inquiry and subsequent hearing stemming from Pres. Donald Trump's July 25 phone call with the leader of the Ukraine a "sham," constantly complaining that the closed-door hearings are keeping the testimonies of key players from the public. Democrats and Republics are currently in a partisan tug-of-war over who will appear in public hearings this month after the Right ignored multiple subpoenas from the House Intelligence Committee.

Republicans on the committee were given a deadline of Sunday at 11:20 a.m. to request any witnesses for the open hearings. However, Democrats may overrule any of the requests with a committee vote, and are expected to do so with Hunter Biden and the whistleblower.

Justin Amash is the sole Republican who supports impeachment and has completely defected from Pres. Trump over his conduct in office. He has repeatedly appealed to his fellow party members to denounce the behavior of the president. But few have, with the exception of Mitt Romney.

In a letter to Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff on Saturday, ranking member Devin Nunes accused Schiff of leading a "sham impeachment process." Republicans have complained that the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry have held closed-door hearings with witnesses in a secure room, arguing that it kept the proceedings from public view. However, details on what happened in the meeting have been widely reported from transcripts that were released.

Nunes wrote in his letter to Schiff that "failure to fulfill Minority witness requests shall constitute evidence of your denial of fundamental fairness and due process." After the GOP refused to cooperate with subpoena request from the Democrats they now want to hear from Hunter Biden and the whistleblower. In their quest to be transparent they are willing to jeopardize the legal protections in place for whistleblowers.

"I think this is about right and wrong and I think the American people understand right and wrong. [Republicans] want public opinion to shift in their favor by playing to the emotions of the large Republican base. Rep, Terri Sewell (D-AL), a member of the Intelligence Committee told Chuck Todd. She further explained that over 40 Republicans are allowed to participate in the SCIF that they unnecessarily bombarded. They remain unified on the position that the president's actions in a July 25 phone call with the president of the Ukraine do not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. The error in this position is that the issue is about the security of the nation and not allowing the president go without having a consequential challenge for abusing power.

With the dividing line so marked along party lines it seems as if the hearing is a formality that will yield obvious results -- the House will vote for impeachment. The Republican dominated Senate will see the case in a trial and will vote to hold Trump harmless. One logical answer for moving forward with the hearing despite the anticipated outcome is that it is a principled matter that can not escape

In the media it sounds like party reps agree on the necessity of due process, but Republicans have held on to initial skepticism that introducing Ukraine call scenario is another attempt to hold Trump accountable for 2016 election interference after the Mueller investigation failed to do so.

The public impeachment hearing got underway on Wednesday.