(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Once again, Adam Schiff is presiding over a horrible hearing. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Schiff literally shocked everyone by attacking GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, who was lethal in the last hearing. As she started to ask the witness questions, Schiff started banging his gavel and shut her down. Well, 15 minutes later, Stefanik made poor Schiff really regret he did that. You’ll love this.
Marie Yovanovitch, who was Barack Obama’s appointee as Ukraine Ambassador, was the witness today, and boy was she a big dud. It’s really hard to see why the Democrats called her since she was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2019. She has zero knowledge of the July 25 phone call which is at the core of the charges for impeachment.
It became clear within the first hour that the only reason Adam Schiff has Yovanovitch as one of his “star witnesses” is for Yovanovitch to tell the American people President Trump was really mean and fired her.
Schiff asked Yovanovitch multiple times about her feelings. Unfortunately, for the Democrats, Yovanovitch has a history of corruption as the Ukraine Ambassador. The last thing Shifty Schiff wanted was for the brilliant GOP Congresswoman to get a crack at Yovanovitch.
So, after the Democrats took a really long break and found out from their media cohorts Yovanovitch was going over like a lead balloon with Americans, it was the GOP’s turn to ask questions. Ranking GOP Member Devin Nunes started to pass the bulk of the questioning over to Rep. Elise Stefanik, and that’s when Schiff went nuts banging his gavel.
“The Gentlewoman will suspend! She will suspend! You are not recognized,” Schiff told Stefanik.
“What is the interruption for this time,” Stefanik said, totally exasperated.
After Nunes tries to clarify that it’s the GOP’s time to ask questions, Schiff changes the rules again. Schiff claims only Nunes or the GOP counsel can ask questions. It was rather shocking. Both Nunes and Stefanik told Schiff that he knows better. This isn’t how Congress usually does business, and it’s just more proof of Shifty Schiff’s hearings are a farce.
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 📺👇 pic.twitter.com/qm9Uj8tiHO
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) November 15, 2019
Luckily, Adam Schiff couldn’t deny Rep. Stefanik the second time, and that’s when she really destroyed him and his “star witness” Marie Yovanovitch.
To understand how the GOP Congresswoman caught Yovanovitch in a big lie, you need to know what Yovanovitch testified to just prior to this line of questioning. Yovanovitch testified earlier in the day she “had no knowledge about claims of potential corruption between Hunter Biden and Burisma.” Keep that in mind.
Rep. Stefanik starts out by getting Yovanovitch to agree that the president has the sole power to appoint and fire all U.S. ambassadors. She then moves into asking Yovanovitch about Biden and Burisma.
“You are aware that the first [anti-corruption] case being investigated between the Ukraine, the U.S., and the U.K. was on the owner of Burisma?” Stefanik asked.
“Yes,” said Yovanovitch.
“And that was during the Obama administration?” Stefanik asked.
“Yes,” said Yovanovitch.
“And in your testimony today you said that investigation was never formally closed because ‘it’s good to keep that company hanging on a hook, right,”‘ Stefanik asked.
“Yes,” said Yovanovitch.
“Ok. Let’s take a step back. The first time you personally became aware of Burisma was actually when you were being prepared by the Obama administration for your Senate confirmation hearings. And this was in the form of practice questions and answers. This is in your deposition. And you say in this practice Q and A it wasn’t generally about Burisma and Hunter Bidens, it was specifically about Hunter Biden and Burisma. Is that correct?” Stefanik asked.
“Yes it is,” said Yovanovitch.
“So for the millions of Americans watching,” Stefanik said. “Obama’s State Department was so concerned about potential conflicts of interest from Hunter Biden’s role at Burisma that they raised it themselves while prepping this ambassador nominee before her confirmation.”
“And yet our Democrat colleagues and Chairman of this committee cry foul when we dare ask that same question that the Obama State Department was so concerned about, but we will continue asking it,” Stefanik declared.
Lastly, as her short time is about to expire, Stefanik said: “I just want to get this on the record. In terms of the lethal aid which you were an advocate for that was not provided by President Obama—it was provided by President Trump.”
“That’s correct,” said Yovanovitch.
This is devastating to Adam Schiff in two very big ways. First, Schiff has been stating before each hearing the GOP may not bring up Burisma or Hunter Biden. He dares to call it a “conspiracy theory” and claims that it has been investigated and nothing was found.
Secondly, Yovanovitch was caught lying. Yovanovitch claimed earlier she “had no knowledge about claims of potential corruption between Hunter Biden and Burisma.” Yet, here she admits she knew there was an open investigation into Burisma.
You can see during this questioning by Stefanik, Yovanovitch is not happy at all. The GOP Congresswoman blew Schiff away by exposing his big lie that the Burisma and Hunter Biden fiasco is just a conspiracy. It was another really bad day for those Democrats who are out to impeach President Trump.
