Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
Impeachment Hearings Day 1: Adam Schiff, Devin Nunes Make Opening Statements
Posted
November 13, 2019
Views
5,607
Likes
43
Comments
55
Engagement
November 13, 2019
5,607
43
55
1.75%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
21:18Now PlayingThe first public hearing in the formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump began Wednesday, as the House Intelligence Committee prepares to hear testimony from two State Department officials.
The committee, led by Chairman Adam Schiff, is starting with testimony from William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of State in the European and Eurasian bureau.
Here are the latest developments:
Schiff Vows to Shield Whistle-Blower’s Name (10:35 a.m.)
Schiff said the committee “will not permit the outing of the whistleblower.” He was responding to Republican complaints that they have been blocked from asking some questions during closed-door testimony.
Nunes Accuses Democrats of Smear Campaign (10:28 a.m.)
The committee’s top Republican, Devin Nunes, accused Democrats of a conducting a “scorched-earth war” against Trump and a “carefully orchestrated media smear campaign.”
”This spectacle is doing great damage to our country. It’s nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime,” said Nunes.
Nunes also took aim at career officials who he said undermined the president. “Elements of the civil service have decided that they, not the president, are really in charge,” he said in his prepared statement.
Nunes told Taylor and Kent that by coming to testify, they “agreed, wittingly or unwittingly, to participate in a drama” orchestrated by Democrats.
“By undermining the president who they are supposed to be serving, elements of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and now the State Department, have lost the confidence of millions of Americans who believe that their vote should count for something,” Nunes said. “It will take years, if not decades, to restore faith in these institutions.”
Schiff Says Probe Is About Abuse of Power (10:14 a.m.)
Schiff said the inquiry is seeking to determine “whether President Trump sought to exploit that ally’s vulnerability and invite Ukraine’s interference in our elections,” and whether Trump sought to condition “official acts” on “Ukraine’s willingness to assist with two political investigations that would help his re-election campaign.”
“And if President Trump did either, whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the Office of the Presidency,” Schiff said.
He said the answers to those questions will affect not only the future of Trump’s presidency, “but the future of the presidency itself, and what kind of conduct or misconduct the American people may come to expect from their commander-in-chief.” -- Billy House
Republicans Bring Signs to Hearing (10:08 a.m.)
Republicans on the Intelligence Committee prepared several placards for the made-for-TV event. One features a tweet in 2017 from Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys for the whistle-blower whose complaint underpinned the start of the inquiry, which said the “#coup has started” and predicted impeachment.
Another placard has a quote from Texas Representative Al Green: “I’m Concerned If We Don’t Impeach This President, He Will Get Re-Elected.”
An additional sign says: “93 Days Since Adam Schiff Learned The Identity of the Whistleblower.” -- Billy House
First Public Hearing Begins at House Panel (10:06 a.m.)
Schiff gaveled in the first public hearing that will receive testimony from witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry.
Former Prosecutor to Be in Inquiry Spotlight (8:25 a.m.)
Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff will hand over part of Democrats’ first 45 minutes of questioning to Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan with experience going after Russian organized crime groups.
The committee’s ranking Republican Devin Nunes will share the next 45 minutes of questioning with Steve Castor, general counsel for the GOP on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for more than 14 years. In that role, Castor investigated matters including Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party groups and the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya in 2012.
Goldman, who joined the Intelligence Committee’s staff in March, will be under pressure to use the witness testimony to build the case for impeaching the president. In a tweet before the hearing, Trump questioned the rules set by the panel that allow a lawyer, in addition to committee members, to lead part of the questioning. -- Billy House
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
TICTOC ON SOCIAL:
Follow TicToc on Twitter
Like TicToc on Facebook
Follow TicToc on Instagram
Subscribe to our newsletter
TicToc by Bloomberg is global news for the life you lead. We are a 24/7 news network that covers breaking news, politics, technology, business and entertainment stories from around the globe, supported by a network of Bloomberg’s 2,700 journalists across 120 countries.
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
