Impeachment Today: What We’re About to See on TV
All the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS) plus cable outlets CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and C-SPAN are expected to set aside scheduled programming this week to cover the House’s open impeachment hearings on President Donald Trump.
NBC News announced it will air a special report starting at 7 am PST Wednesday led by “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie and “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd. On MSNBC, Brian Williams and Nicolle Wallace will anchor the coverage beginning at Noon.
Your best bet for unfiltered and full coverage will be C-SPAN3, C-SPAN Radio and C-SPAN.org. C-SPAN also is offering a special impeachment inquiry web resource.
Democrats in Congress are about to get their wish as a parade of witnesses will testify before cameras about what they saw and understood to be the truth surrounding the President’s attempt to extort the Ukrainian government, hoping get dirt on a political opponent.
This could be--as was true with the McCarthy and Watergate hearings-- a defining moment in American history. Whether people used to instantaneous information will be willing to sit through the process long enough to see any drama, is another question altogether.
Democrats want drama right out of the box. They want fireworks. They want the "gotcha" moments.
The president’s defenders want boring television, with enough unpleasantness to make the public yawn and switch channels. They want to prove this is all much ado about nothing and are willing to demean themselves in a variety of ways.
The one thing working against the Republican strategy is the Dear Leader’s ability to react in real time --and out of sync-- to whatever’s transpiring.
How the media plays this back and forth will have a big impact on the public perception of the Democrat’s case. Will they play “both sides” with assertions they know to be untrue? Can they focus on the substance or satisfy their egos by second guessing what they think the public wants to hear?
Can they suppress the urge to let stunts hijack the coverage? You know, especially if things go badly, Rep. Louie Gohmert will drag a dead armadillo before cameras and claim it was a deep state operative caught breaking into his office.
Ultimately little of what happens will impact Trump actually being removed from office. The Senate, if it gets that far, will decide against ousting the president.
The real effects of what is about to transpire will be seen at the ballot box in 2020.
For those of you wishing to see a detailed accounting of how we got to where we are, I suggest the New York Times and/or the Washington Post timelines. Be sure to get a cup of coffee first, because this story is more involved than most people think.
Democrats have chosen the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr., and the deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Ukraine, George Kent, as their lead witnesses on Wednesday. They will be testifying jointly.
At Political Charge, blogger Tokyo Sand has put together a handy-dandy background on the witnesses.
Likely to be Star Witness #1, Bill Taylor is a career foreign policy specialist in the State Department, and runs the U.S. diplomatic mission in the Ukrainian capital.
KEY: "At the heart of the entire impeachment drama is this question: Did the Trump administration withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for that country opening an investigation into the Bidens? In his testimony, Taylor says yes. 'That was my clear understanding, security assistance money would not come until the President [of Ukraine] committed to pursue the investigation.
George Kent is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
KEY: "Kent makes clear in his testimony that he was alarmed by the role the president’s personal lawyer [Rudy Giuliani] was playing in trying to shape Ukraine policy — especially his efforts to work with a Ukrainian prosecutor to smear the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv, Marie Yovanovitch
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is scheduled to testify on Friday.
Marie Yovanovitch is the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, having been pushed out of her post by the Trump administration.
KEY: Yovanovitch testified that she first learned that Giuliani had an interest in Ukraine toward the end of last year — in November or December. And what she heard was alarming. “Basically, it was people in the Ukrainian Government who said that Mr. Lutsenko, the former prosecutor general, was in communication with Mayor Giuliani, and that they had plans. They were going to, you know, do things, including to me.”
Look for some distractions coming from the Trump administration as the hearings unfold.
Attorney General Bill Barr is reportedly putting together a “report” designed to reframe the narrative. Remember, this is the guy who somehow thought the more than 140 contacts between the Trump campaign and assorted Russians was not important enough to include in his “report” on Robert Mueller’s investigation.
And it’s likely the White House will release the “transcription” of a second phone call with Ukrainian officials. I’m sure it will be “perfect’.
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The ultimate defense strategy: Yeah? So what?
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Lead image: Congresswoman Barbara Jordan at the Watergate Hearings,
via Wikimedia Commons