What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

We may also hear from Republicans today about how Trump is being railroaded by the Democrats, who have not given the president’s counsel any rights during this phase of the impeachment process (they will have a role when it moves to the Judiciary Committee). The problem with that argument is that the Constitution actually doesn’t lay out any protections for the president during impeachment — although historically, presidents have gotten some protections from the House majority.

Today’s hearing is expected (feared?) to last as many as six and a half hours. It will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern with opening statements by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, and ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican. Taylor and Kent will then be sworn in and give their opening statements. Then, Schiff and Nunes — or their staff — each get up to 45 minutes to question them. After that, we’ll return to the hearing format that you might be familiar with: The other members of the committee, alternating between Democrats and Republicans, will get five minutes each to question the witnesses.

One of the arguments you will likely hear from Republicans today is that Democrats are not conducting this impeachment inquiry in a proper, constitutional way. That isn’t true. In a nutshell, the constitution gives the House broad authority in how it wants to conduct an impeachment, but if you want to dig deeper into the law and history of impeachment we did a whole podcast on it.