Public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump will begin next Wednesday, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
Top Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent will testify on Wednesday, Nov. 13, in open hearings. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will then testify on Friday.
The House of Representatives passed a resolution last Thursday to make the impeachment inquiry public, moving the drama of the inquiry from behind closed doors to in front of the public.
Experts told the Deseret News the move to the public setting could help Democrats make their case for impeachment to the public.
“If the Democrats have a clean process and can make a very clean case, there is a chance they will score some political points out of this that will help themselves in the 2020 election,” independent political analyst Scott Rasmussen, former owner of the Rasmussen poll, told the Deseret News. “But, on the other hand, if the Democrats don’t make that case, it will work against them.”
The move to the public arena will likely speed the impeachment process along, too.
“The move from closed-door interviews to public testimony is a significant step in the impeachment inquiry and an indication of how quickly the House investigation into Trump and Ukraine is moving,” according to Axios.
Sources told Axios that committee members want to keep the questions narrowly focused during these public hearings so that the American public can easily follow along and understand what happened.
“They’re focused on bringing in the career officials who revealed the most about Trump and Ukraine — meaning don’t expect many new names or faces as the inquiry shifts to a more public setting,” Axios reports.
Republicans have stood firm on the impeachment inquiry vote, and they remain united in opposing the impeachment inquiry, according to the Deseret News. Republicans have called for the whistleblower — whose complaint kicked off questions about Trump’s ties to Ukraine — to testify before the public.
“When you’re talking about the removal of the president of the United States, undoing democracy, undoing what the American people had voted for, I think that individual should come before the committee,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California.