Democrats' impeachment hearing devolves into exchanged 'intimidation' claims
Schiff threatens Trump: 'We take this very seriously'
Perhaps it was because the Democrats' impeachment hearing witness on Friday, fired ambassador Marie Yavonovich, had no first-hand knowledge of any of the impeachment issues and apparently was center stage simply for her ability to complain about the president and insist that relations with Ukraine should have been handled her way.
Maybe it's because the impeachment issue is so boring.
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Whatever, the discussions on Friday devolved into an exchange of charges of "intimidation" after President Trump juiced the hearing with a social media comment.
"Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian president spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. president’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors," Trump posted.
Then he added, "They call it 'serving at the pleasure of the president.' The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than O."
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the congressman who claimed for years that he had evidence while FBI special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating Democrat claims that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia, when there wasn't any, interrupted his own counsel's interrogation of Yovanovich to confront her with the president's comment.
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Yovanovitch told Schiff, "I can't speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is to be intimidating."
Schiff then warned, "Congress will not tolerate any reprisal, threat of reprisal, for testifying before Congress.
And he threatened, "Some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously."
It was literally minutes later that an accusation of "intimidation" was leveled against Schiff himself.
Twitter social media aggregator Twitchy charged, "Is Adam Schiff practicing some ''intimidation' of his own by not allowing Elise Stefanik to ask questions at impeachment hearing?"
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Once again, Adam Schiff flat out REFUSES to let duly elected Members of Congress ask questions to the witness, simply because we are Republicans. His behavior is unacceptable and he continues to abuse his Chairmanship. Watch
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She posted on social media video of the exchange during which Schiff, under rules he set up, ordered that she would not be allowed to speak, even though the ranking member, Rep. Devin Nunes, had recognized her during his time.
She said, "Once again, Adam Schiff flat out REFUSES to let duly elected Members of Congress ask questions to the witness simply because we are Republicans. His behavior is unacceptable and he continues to abuse his chairmanship…"
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Commentator Katie Pavlich openly wondered, "What is he afraid of?"
"We have no doubt that he's not interested in what Stefanik has to say. But is this a case of him trying to intimidate someone?" Twitchy asked.
There was another "ominous warning" to the president, too, about the same time.
The Gateway Pundit reported, "Former CIA Director John Brennan sent President Trump a very ominous warning on Friday in the middle of Schiff’s impeachment show trial."
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It happened while "Disgruntled fired U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified on Friday on day two of the Adam Schiff show trial."
Brennan's message to the president: "Your comments reflect the despicable nature of your character, hate & fear of our foreign service officers & desperation to protect your corrupt & criminal acts. Your efforts to intimidate will fail. May your downfall be swift, your penalty onerous, & your legacy condemned by all."
The report said, "According to investigative reporter Paul Sperry, Brennan planted the whistleleaker Eric Ciaramella inside of the Trump White House to spy on the president and thwart the Spygate investigation with another attempted coup.
"CIA snitch Eric Ciaramella filed a whistleblower complaint in August over a July 25 phone call President Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleging Trump engaged in quid pro quo when he pressured Zelensky to investigate the Biden crime family."
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The report pointed out, "Ciaramella met with Schiff’s staffers before he filed the whistleblower complaint and coordinated the latest coup attempt as the Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry based off of Ciaramella’s complaint."
The GP reported it was Brennan also who was "behind the first failed coup attempt and peddled the phony Hillary-funded dossier to push the Russian collusion canard."
He's now under investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham for his role in "Spygate."