House Republicans embarrass themselves with childish and transparent complaints to derail impeachment hearings
The impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump continued today as several law professors were called before the House Judiciary Committee to testify as to whether or not they believe, with all their expertise, that president has committed impeachable offenses or not.
The results turned out as anyone following the news would expect. Most of the witnesses agreed that Trump’s efforts to strongarm Ukraine into opening an investigation into Joe Biden and his son ahead of the 2020 election represented a clear abuse of power and a strong reason to impeach.
The Republicans on the committee behaved as shamelessly as one might expect. Desperate to protect their crooked president and the rubberstamp he represents for their regressive agenda, they did everything they could to derail the proceedings, asking partisan, misleading questions and complaining about inane procedural points. They had no real way to defend Trump’s actions and it showed.
Vox‘s Aaron Rupar shared many of the clips from the hearing on his Twitter and assembled a list of the most absurd things the Republicans managed to whine about today. They included: the room being too cold, the chairs being uncomfortable to sit in, witness Pamela Karlan’s comment about Trump naming his son Barron, the impeachment process boring them, and the manner in which Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) brought his gavel down.
The temperature, chair, excitement, and gavel complaints are so petty as to be outright laughable.
Running list of things Republicans have complained about today:
1) the room being too cold
2) chairs being uncomfortable
3) harmless jokes about Trump naming his son Barron
4) impeachment hearing not being exciting enough
5) Nadler bringing down his gavel pic.twitter.com/CjZt0ZyP4B— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2019
Doug Collins has now resorted to complaining about the temperature of the hearing room and how comfortable his chair is pic.twitter.com/0I34OMLJTS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2019
As for the third complaint, it’s just Republicans acting in bad faith as usual. Karlan didn’t mock Barron Trump. She simply wanted to illustrate the limits of the president’s powers by stating that he can name his son “Barron” but is barred from the Constitution from giving him the noble title of Baron. It wasn’t only harmless, it was goodnatured and a clever way to make her point.
KARLAN: "I will give you one example that shows you the difference between him and a king, which is, the Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility. So while Trump can name his son 'Barron,' he can't make him a baron." pic.twitter.com/FF0E0KyAEh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 4, 2019
If this is the best Republicans can do, Donald Trump’s presidency is in very serious trouble.
