We’re getting close to the end here. Today’s hearing with Maguire involved a lot of stage-setting and not a lot of fireworks. But as it went on, I thought the Democrats did an increasingly good job of framing the process concerns (how the complaint was dealt with) in terms that people can understand — i.e., if the inspector general thought the allegations were credible and it involved something as serious as the president pressuring a foreign power to investigate a political rival, why didn’t you think Congress needed to see the complaint?
Going forward, I’m not sure how productive it will be to focus on whether Maguire did something wrong in his handling of the complaint, but I think overall the Democrats did a fairly good job with a witness who wasn’t really inclined to cooperate with them, especially the later questioners. And now the question is really who else the Democrats will be able to call to testify — Coats? Atkinson? Giuliani?