Jerry Nadler (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Honestly, I don’t even know what the hell that was.
The House Judiciary Committee is holding impeachment hearings today, arguably to consider whether to bring impeachment charges against President Donald Trump. Heading into today, I was led to believe that the point was to bring in witnesses, significantly House Intelligence Committee lawyer Daniel Goldman, to explain the 300-page “Schiff report” that details the impeachable offenses committed by Trump.
If there was a legal point behind today’s hearing, it was unclear and useless. If there was a political point for the hearings, the Republican minority quickly ruined it. Their entire game, led by Republican Doug Collins, has been to scream, obfuscate, and make the hearings seems disorderly with useless and disingenuous parliamentary procedures.
For the most part, the Republican “strategy” has worked. I mean, to the extent that knocking over other people’s Legos at playtime is a “strategy.” The Republicans are fighting a guerrilla war here — they don’t have to “win” any ground, they just have to harass and frustrate the opposition. Doug Collins, Louie Gohmert, Jim Sensenbrenner, and the objectively detestable Matt Gaetz: Their interruptions and protestations are just designed to cast aspersions on anybody or anything that is not Donald Trump.
In response, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler has, like, a gavel. He bangs it sometimes. He asks that Republicans stop their shenanigans, but doesn’t have a lot of power to make them stop. When Republicans like Devin Nunes tried to pull this crap on the House Intelligence Committee, Chairman Adam Schiff was ready with an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules, able to recite them from memory, and able to calmly punt misbehaving Republicans into the Sun.
Nadler doesn’t have anywhere approaching Schiff’s command of the proceedings. Nadler knows the objections are baseless, but sometimes he lets them talk, sometimes not. Most often he starts to overtalk them, only to later decide or be told that he has to let them actually make their objections on the record, then proceed to a tabling vote, during which the Republicans always ask for the entire roll call.
Nadler also did a weird thing with House Judiciary counsel Barry Berke. Both Nadler and Collins had opening statements. Then both were allowed to to cede their first 30 minutes of “questioning” to counsel. The counsels’ statements were in lieu of statements from the committee chairs and ranking member. Normally, you’d see such statements made from the dais, but Nadler had Berke (and Republican Counsel Stephen Castor) speak from the witness table. This lead to some confusion — confusion that Republicans on the committee had no reason to be confused about in good faith, but viewers at home might have — about whether Berke and Castor were “witnesses” (they were not), or making opening statements for the committee (they were).
THEN, the committee called witnesses. It was decided that the witnesses for today’s (whatever the hell this was) hearing were to be the lawyers who prepared the House Intelligence reports. For Republicans, that was Steve Castor, so Castor just stayed right where he was when it was time for “witnesses.” But for Democrats, the House Intelligence lawyer was Dan Goldman. So Goldman replaced Berke at the witness table. BUT THEN, the Committee decided to let their opening questions be handled by counsel. Republicans chose George Mason Law graduate Ashley Hurt Callen for their time, but Democrats choose… Barry Berke. For questioning, Berke was back up on the dais.
Technically, Berke was performing the same role, speaking and questioning on behalf of Committee Chairman Nadler, both times, from both different positions. But the confusion allowed Republicans to pitch an actual fit throughout.
That’s the thing about fighting asymmetrical wars. Republicans have no arguments, but when you give them something to argue about, they’re going to throw up histrionics to the fullest extent. Schiff handled it with the calm and relative smoothness of a veteran parent who is used to baby Republicans spreading Gerber’s all over the dining room. Nadler handled it like a manager who is exasperated that kids started a food fight in his restaurant.
Whatever, none of it matters. Democrats are going to impeach. Republicans are going to cry foul on state-run propaganda TV. Nothing actually happened today. The toilet has already been flushed. Today was just another swirl around the bowl for American democracy.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.