WASHINGTON — As reporters, producers and Capitol Police officers surveyed the blue velvet drapes, white columns and ornate ceiling, a C-Span crew rigged the cameras and microphones that will deliver historic impeachment hearings from this cavernous committee room to screens across America.
“This is what constitutes our Super Bowl,” said one crewman, who didn’t want to be named, as he crawled along the floor, taping down cables on the eve of the first hearing Wednesday morning. He pushed them under the imposing carved wood dais where members of Congress will sit looking down at the witness table and more than 200 staff, media and spectators in the Ways and Means hearing room.
At the same time, Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee were meeting elsewhere in the capital for a scheduled three-hour strategy session, leaving with a memo about a half-inch thick — a small glimpse into the party’s work behind the scenes.
“We recognize this is an important hearing and we recognize that if we are better prepared we can have a better outcome and we can have a more focused hearing,” Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, told the Deseret News. “We’re spending our time on what questions matter, what do we think these witnesses will tell us and try the best way that we can to make it meaningful for people who are watching.”
Democrats, too, prepared members to navigate the hearings and craft their messaging on the subject, reportedly emphasizing simplicity and a narrow focus. As reported by Politico, staffers working for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., stressed this streamlined message to press secretaries gathered in her office Tuesday: “Trump abused his office to help his re-election campaign.”
The impeachment proceedings were sparked by a whistleblower’s complaint about a July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The hearings will focus on whether Trump asked for help investigating political rival Joe Biden and his family, and whether he withheld military aid to Ukraine and dangled a coveted visit to the White House in exchange for that “favor.”
The president has called that phone conversation “perfect.”
The hearings will mark just the fourth time in the nation’s history that the House has considered impeaching a sitting president. If Trump is impeached, the Senate would then hold a trial to decide whether to remove him from office. No president has been convicted, though two have been impeached. President Richard Nixon resigned in 1973 before the House held an impeachment vote.
The first witness Wednesday will be the U.S.’s top diplomat in Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr. A transcript of his closed-door deposition said he told the committee the atmosphere surrounding U.S. policy toward that nation was a “snake pit.” He also said he had a “clear understanding” that U.S. military aid would not be sent until Ukraine pursued investigations benefitting Trump.
Despite these allegations, which like most of the closed-door testimony have been broadly reported, Stewart predicted in his office Tuesday that the Trump impeachment hearings would lack the drama of past impeachment proceedings.
“This isn’t going to be like Watergate where there’s really compelling surprises and testimony,” he said. “You have to have a couple moments where American people go, ‘holy crap, we should impeach this president.’ I don’t think these hearings are going to provide that.”
Stewart’s assessment syncs neatly with the latest GOP strategy, which hinges on the position that Trump’s dealings with Ukraine were legitimate.
According to a memo distributed late Monday as reported by The New York Times, the Republicans plan to describe Trump’s attempts to have Ukraine investigate a political rival as an “entirely reasonable” plan to root out corruption in Ukraine.
“Democrats want to impeach President Trump because unelected and anonymous bureaucrats disagreed with the president’s decisions and were discomforted by his telephone call with President Zelensky,” the Times quoted from the memo. “The president works for the American people. And President Trump is doing what Americans elected him to do.”
Stewart couldn’t confirm whether he received that memo. But he pointed to a thick document on his desk that he received during Tuesday’s strategy meeting and said he has “four or five” similar memos from GOP leadership on impeachment.
Politico also reported that Republicans have issued an 18-page memo on messaging, and have held mock hearings and a full GOP conference meeting to prepare for the hearings.
Stewart is the only member of Utah’s delegation sitting in the committee hearings. Republican Rep. John Curtis, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which is also involved in the inquiry, will be monitoring this week’s hearings closely through his staff when he can’t watch himself, a spokeswoman said.
But other members stressed they had packed schedules and the impeachment proceedings weren’t a top priority.
“I’m not going to follow the House hearings extremely closely,” Sen. Romney, one of the most outspoken Republican critics of the president, told reporters late Tuesday en route to a vote in the Senate chamber. “If it comes to the Senate, I will review all the evidence presented by both the prosecution and by the defense.”
The bulk of the questioning will be done by staff attorneys representing both Republican and Democratic members of the committee. But other committee members will later get brief turns of five minutes each.
And Stewart expects to have his shot at the witnesses Wednesday.
“I insisted with leadership and said there is no way in the world that I can’t be involved in this and can’t take my time,” he said. But he’s not saying what his questions will be.
Observers have told the Deseret News that witnesses selected by Intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., are expected to keep their message simple and direct – mirroring the Democrats’ overall strategy – for the viewing public: Trump should be impeached for using his office for personal political gain.
Much of the upcoming testimony won’t be new to committee members, but Democrats hope the public hearings will breathe life into their message.
“This only puts a human face on that,” Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., told Politico on the significance of public hearings. “There’s a reason that you don’t just hand out transcripts at a jury trial. Watch these people. This is the cream of our diplomatic corps. They’re speaking truth to power at great risk.”
The risk to Democrats is that Republicans succeed in muddying the waters and leaving the public more confused than enlightened.
“We need to say to Republicans, ‘Are you defending democracy or are you defending the president?’” another Democratic leadership staffer told Politico. “That’s the crux of this issue.”