If you want to avoid it, stay offline and turn off your TV, because starting this morning at 10am ET, the impeachment inquiry against President Trump will officially go public.
As we told you before, State Department officials William Taylor and George Kent will be the first witnesses taking center stage today. Behind closed doors, both told lawmakers about their concerns with the Trump administration pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden.
On Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine is set to speak. So far, the whistleblower is not scheduled to testify.
How will all this work? House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, will each make an opening statement, then there will statements from the two witnesses. Schiff and Nunes will both have 45-minutes to question the witnesses...followed by each committee member (13 Dems, 9 GOP) having five-minutes to ask questions. Today's hearing is expected to last at least six-hours.
These impeachment hearings are the first held in more than 20 years – and if the House does vote to impeach, Trump would face the choice of fighting for his office in the Senate or resign. Both President Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Clinton in 1999 fought in the House and ultimately survived a Senate trial. Nixon resigned before he could be impeached. There is no indication that the President will participate in any way.
Source: NBC News