General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPelosi is Choosing Schiff over Nadler to Run Impeachment Investigation
Schiff, in concert with other chairmen, moved swiftly Friday to issue subpoenas for documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and set up depositions next week with State Department officials who would have knowledge of Trumps engagements with Ukraine. One official, Kurt Volker, suddenly resigned Friday as Trumps special envoy on Ukraine, the first casualty of the burgeoning scandal.
With a seemingly endless string of TV appearances, Schiff earned his Democratic colleagues trust as a public messenger early in the Trump administration, leading the partys response to allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by the president.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-turns-to-schiff-to-lead-house-democrats-impeachment-inquiry-of-trump/2019/09/28/ed6c4608-e149-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html
Makes sense to use the man with the most prosecutorial experience.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)ananda
(28,837 posts)He is so great!
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)Fiendish Thingy
(15,555 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)empedocles
(15,751 posts)Takket
(21,529 posts)and Nadler should continue to expose collusion from 2016
klook
(12,152 posts)onetexan
(13,024 posts)For ratings/readership. It makes more of an intriguing story if Dems were fractured i suppose, but since this explosive story broke ive mostly seen stories that say Dems are united, thanks to Nancy's cautious, decisive & deliberate approach, and moving it so fast she's giving Dumpster & his enablers whiplash
mucifer
(23,487 posts)onetexan
(13,024 posts)Which is incorrect.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)The fact is our House leaders are totally united and the Washington Post cant stand that.
TheRealistRealist
(180 posts)But I am bit perturbed by his mock reading of the transcript summary. Yes I know Trump is a joke and I want him removed more than anyone. But why give Trump and his thugs anything to use against him? I suspect more GOP members will call for his removal due to perceived bias. I don't understand why he would do that during one of the most important times in history
Focus on the job at hand Mr. Schiff. Our country is relying on you
dem4decades
(11,270 posts)They were powerful and need to be seen by everyone.
Mars and Minerva
(369 posts)It was unnecessary, especially when the actual memo was very easy to understand and shocking as well.
Let's hope he is done improvising and goes back to acting like a lawyer.
When he's good, which is most of the time, he's great. That was a rare stumble.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Thats funny!
hlthe2b
(102,141 posts)(right now) focused on intelligence and foreign affairs.
Nadler isn't sidelined more than temporarily, but Schiff must take the forefront. He'll also handle the constant abusive RW attacks better, I think, on those occasions that he needs to engage the press.
bucolic_frolic
(43,064 posts)mucifer
(23,487 posts)Harker
(13,988 posts)Takket
(21,529 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)The Judiciary committee passed a rules resolution that allows staff counsel 30 min to question witnesses, not just the useless 5-min rounds for members.
Thats how we got Barry Berke questioning Levandowski.
The Intel committee must do this too!!!!
The hearing they had with the acting DNI Maguire this week didnt have staff counsel questioning. That was bad.
Schiff needs to fix that now.
True Blue American
(17,981 posts)Poiuyt
(18,118 posts)Berke, or any other pit bull prosecutor. Someone who could take a line of questioning from beginning to end.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)ancianita
(35,950 posts)The problem is in their vetting for classified clearance that the committee has. Because that's much of the background they can use, even though publicly revealed information has sufficed.
There's a level about what's been going on that the public has to be made aware of.
uponit7771
(90,304 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,795 posts)Ligyron
(7,622 posts)At first I thought it was a mistake to concentrate on just one act. Trump has done so much other shit and since it's doubtful the Senate will convict at this point, the main purpose of an Impeachment inquiry is to 1. be able to actually obtain the subpoenaed material this time around, and 2. Educate the American public.
But then I thought about it and considering how ignorant the average citizen has become and the fact that Trump, etc. just flat out admitted to committing the crime in queston (again) it will marvelously concentrate their little minds on that one simple, irrefutable fact and make it hard for anyone in the RW media or Senate to deny it took place.
I just hope Barr, Pompeo and Ghouli anna can be somehow brought down too for their participation in this crime and the whole secret server gets exposed. Meanwhile, other committees are coming up with more bad stuff that happened in the Trump W.H. Maybe if we get a Dem Executive they can be prosecuted eventually and meanwhile bad press for the Trump GOP.
lostnfound
(16,162 posts)Might be easier to eat the elephant one bite at a time.
Erosion can tear down a mountain.
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)...public sentiment will likely turn against Democrats. It will be easy to paint them as sore losers grasping at straws.
They can approve articles of impeachment that include various different offenses, but it really has to be a one-shot deal.
lostnfound
(16,162 posts)Republicans seem much better at shaping public sentiment.
They dont worry half as much about what people will think of them. They just keep repeating the same stuff 47,000 times.
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)...is that I think youre going to get a lot of Americans who, even if they understand the case, will shrug it off with Who gives a f*ck about what happens in the Ukraine? I certainly dont. Whereas Russia is a far more-understandable matter.
In a way, we may have been handed a gift with the revelation that the same top-secret server was also used to store similar conversations with Putin and MBS. I think we need to find out just what other conversations with foreign leaders needed to be hushed-up, and why?
Texin
(2,590 posts)As the leader in the House of the Intelligence Committee, Schiff would normally be the one to chair the proceedings.
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)better suited to take over.
jcgoldie
(11,613 posts)Schiff is the person for the job.
malaise
(268,724 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)corbettkroehler
(1,898 posts)I like Chairman Nadler well but, as the Speaker put it regarding Lewandowski, "I would have held him in contempt right then". Had Lewandowski's lying hide been dragged before House Intel, it would be in contempt today.
kozar
(2,088 posts)Shows that Nancy isn't playing political games, She is focused.
Koz
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,615 posts)is the one in charge of the primary subject matter. When it's time to draw up articles of impeachment it all goes back to Judiciary.
Fla Dem
(23,593 posts)Not too much grandstanding and preambles before asking direct and pointed questions.
Examples:
Kamala Harris
Elizabeth Warren
Amy Klobuchar
Maxine Waters
PatrickforO
(14,561 posts)outstanding job. Made me like both Klobuchar and Harris that much more.
Response to Fla Dem (Reply #30)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
PatrickforO
(14,561 posts)Maguire. I have confidence in Schiff. Nadler is a good man, but he really looked confused during the Lewandowsky hearings, and the stakes here are really, really high.
These impeachment hearings must educate the American people about the criminality and utter corruption of Trump and his henchmen, and Schiff's incisive questioning and they way he ran Maguire's testimony really got the ship going.
CaptainTruth
(6,576 posts)marble falls
(57,014 posts)dots better and quicker.
Python boot
(74 posts)When Adam Schiff made his closing remarks to Maguire you could see by Maguires face he knew what he did was treasonous and he was ashamed. Basically Schiff told him that he let a bully force him into double-crossing the American people.
DeminPennswoods
(15,265 posts)The Intel Cmte is much smaller, just 26 members, only 9 of whom are Republicans.
OTOH, Judiciary has 41 members of which 17 are Republicans including total tools like Doug Collins, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz and Louis Gohmert. The worst Intel R is probably Nunes and he's not even in the same league with the Judiciary looney toons Rs.
So which committee gives the Rs the best chance to turn hearings into a circus? It's not the Intel Cmte.
Schiff's definitely an able and no nonsense questioner, but so is Nadler. The difference is that Intel Cmte isn't as partisan or as unwieldly.
ancianita
(35,950 posts)makes the R's there less prone to story telling and more cooperative about not lying to the public.
The facts will impeach Trump. No RW story (from foraging in Ukraine for fabrication material) about the facts will stop it.
DeminPennswoods
(15,265 posts)What else is there, really?
ancianita
(35,950 posts)dem4decades
(11,270 posts)ancianita
(35,950 posts)room designated for their read-only access, might inform their change of mind in the Senate trial. Or not.
Evidence, seen wholly, can still be denied. Some faith and loyalty are unchangeable. We see that constantly over abortion law (denying free will support of Roe v Wade) and climate science (denying patterns and expertise).
There's a congressional group who are like the American population. Their minds are so made up by "official stories" they so want to believe, that secrecy or sunlight hasn't made any difference in their politics, anyway.
Yet most of 45 voters who cling to their guns and bibles were SO insulted when Obama described them truthfully as "clinging to their guns and bibles."
We'll see if there are the rumored 30 Republicans in the Senate who can be persuaded by straight fact and evidence when the Senate trial vote is taken. I doubt that Chief Justice Roberts will allow McConnell or Graham to "jury tamper" that group.
dem4decades
(11,270 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,265 posts)All the depositions and testimony simply will be to corroborate Trump's admission.
WinstonSmith4740
(3,055 posts)I know it's been maddeningly slow, and a lot of us were frustrated as hell with the Speaker's resistance to impeachment. But, damn when she moves, she does it right. She gave him enough rope to hang himself and he did just that. Putting Schiff in charge is brilliant.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Sanity Claws
(21,841 posts)and didn't let ego dominate.
Nadler also had a health issue about two months ago.