On 23 October, dozens of House Republicans led by Matt Gaetz stormed a closed-door impeachment hearing in an act of protest against non-transparency of the proceedings led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
"What is Adam Schiff trying to hide?" House Republicans are asking.
On the same day, Republican congressmen Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes and Michael McCaul wrote a letter to Schiff urging him to "arrange for the Committees to receive public testimony" from the whistleblower, whose complaint became the trigger for the probe, as well as "all individuals he or she relied upon".
Hats off to @RepMattGaetz for leading the charge as dozens of my outraged colleagues demand a stop to the unprecedented secrecy of this "impeachment inquiry."
— Rep. Jody Hice (@CongressmanHice) 24 октября 2019 г.
These dungeon trials are making a mockery of justice. The American people believe in fairness.
Enough is enough!
Republican lawmakers argue that so-called impeachment inquiry kicked off by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on 24 September is null and void given that she skipped the floor vote thus depriving the House minority of the right to issue subpoenas and cross-examine witnesses.
For its part, the White House made it clear on 9 October that it would not cooperate with the House Dems' investigation which is conducted "contrary to the Constitution of the United States and all past bipartisan precedent".
Why the US Establishment is Seeking to Remove Trump
Nevertheless, the "impeachment inquiry" propelled by the House Democrats is still raging on - much to the glee of the left-leaning mass media.
"The so-called impeachment inquiry is being held despite its departure from constitutional procedures because it is essentially a soft coup attempt at removing Trump and an entirely politicised investigation," says Max Parry, an independent American journalist and geopolitical analyst.
According to the analyst, Trump's conduct is far from being flawless and the US president has himself violated the Constitution by, for example, unilateral bombing of Syria without congressional approval which could be used by his opponents to expel him from the Oval Office.
"Instead, they are only interested in removing Trump because he has committed the offense of breaking from the establishment consensus," the journalist opines. "Even though he has expanded NATO with Montenegro, armed Ukraine in the Donbass war, pulled out of the INF Treaty, scrapped the Iran deal, and bombed Syria, the neocons in Washington are still unsatisfied because he has hinted at the idea of rapprochement with Moscow and scaled back the US presence on the ground in Syria."
Dems Have Yet to Present Evidence of Trump's Impeachable Crimes
William Dunkerley, author, media business analyst and consultant based in New Britain, Connecticut, stresses the Democrats have not yet presented any evidence of Trump's impeachable crimes in the first place.
"There's not been very much yet", he says. "It really will depend on what emerges. So far, I don't think anything really solid has emerged against President Trump on the issues that are being talked about."
As for the Democrats secretiveness, it does not really make sense, according to the author: "the Democrats contention that they don't want the witnesses to hear what each other would say in testimony" is dubious given that "there's nothing stopping them from getting together on their own and exchanging notes outside of the hearing."
The rebuke of Adam Schiff’s Kangaroo Court is bipartisan. https://t.co/1Xv7SxNovc
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) 25 октября 2019 г.
The analyst regards the so-called impeachment inquiry as "an ongoing process that began with the election of Donald Trump". He points out that from day one Trump's political opponents have been trying "to nullify the validity of his election and to give him basically as much trouble as they can," starting with the fuss over the Electoral College vote and ending with the ongoing Ukrainegate.
"So there's been one attempt after another - on the part of Trump's political opponents to try to put roadblocks in the way of doing what he wants to do," Dunkerley highlights.
'US MSM Falling Into Same Trap It Laid for Itself With Russiagate'
However, the US left-leaning mainstream media is claiming that this time the Dems won't let Donald Trump off the hook.
"Impeachment is too important to leave to Congress — it’s going to take mass mobilisation", foresees Vox.
"Impeachment is now effectively inevitable", The Atlantic insists.
"[Trump impeachment] is a very open and shut case," echoes Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
.@AOC: Trump’s impeachment an “open and shut case.”
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) 25 октября 2019 г.
“He has committed impeachable crimes. It’s just a question of how many and how many people were involved and who knew." pic.twitter.com/TTltj4dRbD
According to Parry, we have already seen this when the Democratic Party was predicting Trump's ouster over the Russiagate hoax. Make no mistake, "this is the same media that predicted a Clinton landslide," the journalist remarks.
"The media is falling into the same trap it laid for itself with Russiagate which never panned out", he observes. "The MSM published thousands upon thousands of articles predicting the same outcome with Russiagate which never materialised and it is repeating this again. They are digging their own grave and their own slide into irrelevancy."
Why Dems Still Have Little Chance of Beating Trump in 2020
Max Parry argues that the House Dems' impeachment push is going to backfire on them "because historically impeachment ultimately helped those who have been subject to it in the past".
"We don't have many examples to go on, obviously, but impeachment raised Clinton's approval rating and when the [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller report turned out to be a dud, there was an uptick in Trump's favorability," the journalist recalls. "This is also a lost cause because although it may pass the house, the Democrats are unlikely to get enough GOP senators to support it for him to be removed from office."
As a result, the Democratic Party is facing yet another resounding defeat in 2020 unless they find a worthy adversary for Trump, according to the analyst.
"I think unless the Democrats nominate [Bernie] Sanders or another non-party/non-establishment candidate, especially with these proceedings going on during the campaign which will inevitably help him, they have little chance of beating Trump," Parry concludes.
