WASHINGTON ― In the latest attempts to make a circus out of the House Intelligence Committees investigation into President Donald Trumps dealings with the Ukrainian government, a contingent of House Republicans stormed a secure room in the Capitol basement Wednesday, disrupting a deposition and violating House rules by bringing in their phones into a secure area.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whose chief of staff sent an email to Republican legislators offices last week about entering the guarded committee room, led the group of roughly 30 lawmakers into the Intelligence Committees secure area. And because the Republicans, who are not members of the committee, brought phones and other electronics into the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), Democrats said the room would now have to be sanitized.
They not only brought in their unauthorized bodies, they may have brought in the Russians and the Chinese, said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee.
Swalwell added that some Republican members held onto their phones even after the Sergeant at Arms asked that they remove them from the area. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) later reported that he personally collected phones from Republicans and took them out of the SCIF. The scene outside a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) where a closed session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees took place on Wednesday. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) held a press conference prior to the walk-in to call for transparency in impeachment inquiry. (Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images)
The storming of the committee room came as the Intelligence Committee was set to interview Laura Cooper, a Pentagon employee who oversaw Ukrainian issues. Cooper was in the room as Republicans barged through the door, and committee staff moved her into another area. Republicans have complained for weeks that the committee isnt allowing non-members to sit in on proceedings or review transcripts, and they say there needs to be transparency with the whole process.
Democrats argue that, while investigating Trumps efforts to get the Ukrainian president to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, its imperative that witnesses not have the ability to coordinate stories. They also say that the testimony will eventually be made public, and there will also be public proceedings.
Republicans have obsessed over the process Democrats are following, saying its too secretive and unfair to the president.
Its finally reached a boiling point where members just said they are so frustrated at the idea that they cant be a part of this and see whats going on, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Wednesday.
Jordan did acknowledge that the Republicans shouldnt have brought phones into the SCIF.
Theyre not used to this, he said. They walked in, soon as they were told that, they sent their phones out. It was a mistake, so no big deal.
But Democrats see the whole ordeal as a much bigger issue.
For one, they believe Republicans taking over the committee room Wednesday was an attempt to intimidate Cooper and other witnesses. They also think Republicans are trying to hold up the proceedings and make a mockery of the investigation.
The tactics are an effort to delay the inevitable, Swalwell said. They are a response to just damaging and pulverizing testimony yesterday from a courageous ambassador in Bill Taylor.
Taylor testified Tuesday that Trump did indeed solicit a quid pro quo from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Taylor documented that a White House meeting between Zelensky and Trump was connected to Zelensky opening an investigation into the Ukrainian energy company upon whose board Hunter Biden sat, and an additional investigation into alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
Republicans continue to ignore those damning allegations, instead focusing on the process playing out in the Intelligence Committee room. But their efforts to make the investigation a circus may only backfire on themselves.
The hostile takeover of the committee room, which was endorsed by GOP leadership ― the chambers number two Republican, Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), even participated in the charade ― is the latest in a string of attempts to distract from the actual Ukraine scandal. Republicans are trying to get voters to dig into their familiar partisan foxholes and disregard any new information.
But storming through the Restricted Area doors of the SCIF, bringing their phones, occupying the committee room for hours even ordering pizza ― are all charades that unbiased voters should see through.
Gaetz, who is leading the efforts, was already kicked out of the committee room when he tried a similar stunt by himself weeks ago. Now hes enlisting more and more Republicans to join his performative defense of the president.
In a look-at-me move thats almost too on the nose, Gaetz also broke House rules Wednesday when his staff handed out expired congressional passes to some uncredentialed reporters and the crew of HBOs The Swamp. The show is following Gaetzs efforts to combat the impeachment process, and his office gave about 10 crew members and reporters expired passes to another room in the Capitol, according to a GOP staffer familiar with the situation. There is a formal process for credentialing members of the congressional press corps, and those reporters and crew members were kicked out of the Capitol by police.
I dont manage the press passes for camera crews, Gaetz said when asked if his SCIF stunt had followed the rules regarding phones and press credentials. So I dont really think Im in position to answer that question.
Poster Comment:
Christ, getting 1980's flashbacks :)
#1: GreyLmist To: Dakmar (#0)
15th-17th centuries flashbacks re: Star Chamber Proceedings, aka Kangaroo Court.
Democrats have no authority whatsoever to act as if they are an overruling Monarchy
with private access to America's Congressional facilities at taxpayer expense and
with privileged rulebreaking powers to exclusively conduct an illegal impeachment
"inquiry."
GreyLmist posted on 2019-10-24 16:58:53 Reply Private Reply
#2: NeoconsNailed To: GreyLmist (#1)
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-10-24 19:49:39 Reply Private Reply
#3: GreyLmist To: NeoconsNailed (#2)
That's like asking: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
I'm going to guess that they trample as many rules per day as they want to trample because they think they're exempt
from America's rules and laws but their opponents aren't. Every day that they misuse the Intelligence Committee
room like it's their secret tribunal headquarters to run an unauthorized impeachment "inquiry" over a Presidential
phone conversation with Ukraine's President - not an Intel agent - it's an attempt, imo, to replace America's
government system with an Anarcho-Communist dictatorship by them. Here are 2 more examples:
Rep. Jordan, GOP lawmakers hold a press conference on the border crisis - YouTube, 38.5 minutes | Streamed live on
Jun 18, 2019 by Fox News
2012 4um discussion refs. re: legislative matters passed in the Senate by only one voice vote: Democrat Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid's of Nevada.
GreyLmist posted on 2019-10-24 23:51:15 Reply Private Reply
#4: NeoconsNailed To: GreyLmist (#3)
"suspension bill" -- what next!
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-10-25 01:18:13 Reply Private Reply
#5: GreyLmist To: NeoconsNailed (#4)
Yes, I think he's a good guy. The rules rigging iceberg of Congressional contrivance has been wildly distorting our Founders' legislative intent since at least the 1970s, according to one source - and with court approvals, according to another source (but that might possibly boomerang back at the Democrats complaining about the GOP interrupting their pretend "Intelligence Committee" tribunal):
The Legislative Process
Suspension of the rules in the United States Congress - Wikipedia
Suspension of the rules | Rules that cannot be suspended - Wikipedia
Hastert Rule - Wikipedia
In summary: "there are fifteen volumes of parliamentary procedures and supplementary manuals of notes specifying current rules that pertain to lawmaking in the House. Similar reams of codes exist in the Senate." [Ref. The Legislative Process source linked above.]
GreyLmist posted on 2019-10-25 22:32:38 Reply Private Reply
#6: NeoconsNailed To: GreyLmist (#5)
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-10-25 23:42:17 Reply Private Reply
#7: GreyLmist To: NeoconsNailed (#6)
Yes, it is -- like incongruent "spaghetti codes" of foreign systems programming to supplant our rightful form of government by "suspension bills" and whatnot. Thanks for spotlighting that "Unorthodox Lawmaking" publication.
Am archiving more links here with relevance to volumes of the Rules referenced at Post #5. This 4um topic has some discussion about Robert's Rules of Order (which are also used for organizational meetings); with a linked source included there. The YouTube source below concerns a controversial matter in the House of Representatives this year during a mid-July session. The last time that something occurred there similarly was 35 years ago and both matters involved calls for the House Speaker's comments to be removed as violations of the Rules of Conduct. A Fox News reporter cites VP Thomas Jeffersons Manual and another rules compliation called the Cannon Book of Precedents:
House tensions erupt as Collins accuses Pelosi of crossing line - YouTube, 7.25 minutes | Published by Fox News on Jul 16, 2019
GreyLmist posted on 2019-10-29 01:18:38 Reply Private Reply
#8: Lod To: GreyLmist (#7)
Perfect analysis.
Lod posted on 2019-10-29 13:18:23 Reply Private Reply
#9: NeoconsNailed To: GreyLmist, HAPPY2BME-4UM, All (#7)
Aha, somebody else is treating this place as a RESOURCE. Good, GreyL!
I'm not at all happy with the idea the Prexy can't be criticized. Speech codes in our legislative chambers, including a prohibition on impugning Congresscritters' motives? Absolutely horrendous -- unless they pulled that one out of mothballs just to shut Pocahontas up that day, which I doubt....
www.youtube.com/watch? v=TieiUMRDOec
It's just like prefacing their names with "the Honorable" -- been standard procedures for centuries I'm sure, but we just can't HAVE that kind of thing in America. Borders on a title of nobility, c.f. 'Your Honor'".
Politicians' egos off limits? Unthinkable. I'm sure I'm repeating myself again, but you got me going ;)
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-10-29 14:02:47 Reply Private Reply
#10: GreyLmist To: NeoconsNailed (#9)
GreyLmist posted on 2019-11-09 10:42:36 Reply Private Reply
#11: NeoconsNailed To: GreyLmist (#10)
What do you think of Sessions? Shall I stop hating him now?
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-11-10 15:35:25 Reply Private Reply
#12: Lod To: NeoconsNailed (#11)
Lod posted on 2019-11-10 16:06:41 Reply Private Reply
#13: Anthem To: Lod (#12)
And the strict observance of correct protocol that it entailed. Chivalry died a lingering death in the years since.
Anthem posted on 2019-11-11 08:19:53 Reply Private Reply
#14: GreyLmist To: Anthem (#13)
"Ivanhoe restored it." -- Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
GreyLmist posted on 2019-11-11 18:50:03 Reply Private Reply
#15: GreyLmist To: NeoconsNailed (#11)
GreyLmist posted on 2019-11-11 19:34:11 Reply Private Reply
#16: NeoconsNailed To: GreyLmist (#15)
NeoconsNailed posted on 2019-11-12 07:30:54 Reply Private Reply