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  • 2019-11-17 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Schiff Unfairly Squelch Stefanik at Impeachment Hearing? (en)
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  • The U.S. House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearing into the activities of President Donald Trump held on Nov. 15, 2019, involved hours of testimony from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was questioned by both Democratic and Republican members of the House. When the committee's activities resumed after a break that day, the committee’s ranking minority member, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, attempted to yield a portion of his time to Rep. Elise Stefanik, a junior Republican colleague from New York, for a few quick questions. Stefanik's attempts to pose questions to Yovanovitch were repeatedly interrupted and cut off by committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, who suspended her questioning and declined to recognize her on the grounds that Nunes' yielding his time to her was contrary to the rules established for the committee: You’re gagging the young lady from New York? Nunes declared, as Stefanik testily asked, What is the interruption for this time? and complained that it was the fifth time that Schiff had interrupted duly elected members of Congress. When Nunes attempted to intercede on Stefanik's behalf by asserting that whoever controls the time can yield to whoever they wish, Schiff calmly stated that Nunes was not accurate and that the Republicans' actions were contrary to House Resolution 660: Those events led to claims by Republicans and right-leaning news media that Schiff had unfairly barred Republicans from asking questions during the hearing: But Schiff was correct, and the Republicans were wrong. Under the resolution passed by the House two weeks earlier, at that point in the proceedings the chair and the ranking minority member of the committee (i.e., Schiff and Nunes) could use their allotted 45 minutes to either yield to staff counsel or pose questions themselves, but not yield time to whoever they wish[ed]. By attempting to give up some of his time to Stefanik, Nunes was violating the committee's established rules: Stefanik was able to pose her inquiries later in the proceedings that day, when committee members were allotted time to question Yovanovitch: Jim Newell opined in Slate that the controversy over Schiff's refusal to recognize Stefanik was manufactured, as everyone on the committee was familiar with the established rules and had conducted a hearing under those same rules just two days earlier: (en)
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