Thread by @jeremyherb

Impeachment hearings, round two

And we're underway, with a procedural question on a minority day of hearings to kick things off. It won't be the last one.

Nadler in his opening statement is walking through the allegations against Trump, and also citing Mueller's testimony to set up Trump's call with Zelensky

Rep. Collins opener: "What a disgrace to this committee. To have the committee of impeachment simply take from other entities and rubber stamp it."

Collins signals that Republicans will tell the other side of the story that he says was missing from the Intelligence Committee proceedings

Rep. Collins now asks for Schiff to testify before the committee, and now the Democrats are moving to table the motion.

First roll call of the day!

Noah Feldman says the Trump's conduct "clearly constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors under the Constitution.”

The three Dem witnesses all plan to testify Trump committed impeachable offenses, while the GOP witness will say the opposite (surprise, I know!)

Next motion: to postpone the hearing until next week.

And let's do another roll call.

Pamela Karlan goes after Rep. Collins in her opening statement: "I’m insulted by the suggestion as a law professor that I don’t care about those facts."

Karlan goes for a domestic analogy, asking if it would be OK if a president held up disaster aid from a governor unless they "brand my opponent a criminal."

Turley: "I get it, you're mad. The President's mad ... My wife is mad. My kids are mad. Even my dog seems mad."

But he asks, "Will a slipshod impeachment make us less mad or will it only give an invitation for the madness to follow in every future administration?"

The dog is a goldendoodle, FYI.

The opening statements are done and we're onto the next procedural vote: on subpoenaing the whistleblower

Nadler's counsel for this hearing now asking questions of the witnesses is Norm Eisen, who was brought on as a consultant to the Judiciary Committee

On the screen in the hearing room...future articles of impeachment?

The first two are likely, the third is still being debated by Democrats

Karlan says she spent her Thanksgiving reviewing transcripts -- a lot of people on the Hill know the feeling

Eisen wraps and the committee takes what Nadler deems a 10-minute "humanitarian" recess

And we're back, with Collins saying that Nadler must schedule a minority day of hearings as requested under the House rules

Collins dunks on the Ways and Means hearing room, notes that this is "the coldest" hearing room and that his chair is "terrible."

He's correct that the room is COLD

Collins now gives Turley time to respond to the 45-minutes of Dem questioning, which he uses to argue that the evidence doesn't clearly meet the bribery standard

Turley goes after the Nixon article of impeachment on obstruction of Congress, saying his hair "lights on fire" when he hears it referenced

Turley says that Democrats are rushing impeachment by not waiting for the courts, and tells Congress that it's an abuse of their power to impeach Trump on obstruction of Congress without waiting for the courts to rule

"Fast and narrow" is not a good case for impeachment, Turley says, adding: "Impeachments are like buildings."

Asking questions now as GOP counsel is Paul Taylor, who is a 20-year veteran of the Judiciary Committee

GOP 45 minutes wraps, and Nadler notes that the White House would have had a chance to ask questions at this point in the hearing.

Now we're onto member questions. Only 40+ to go! (This committee is almost twice as big as intel)

Turley cites George Washington and "extreme" executive privilege claims and we're in full-on academic discussion now

Rep. Lofgren notes that she was present for all three modern impeachment proceedings: as a staffer for Nixon and a lawmaker for Clinton and now Trump

Now we're into break No. 2 for House votes, which will take at least 30-45 minutes

3 members down w/ questions. A lot to go.

We're back with Rep. Sensenbrenner, who was an impeachment manager during the Clinton impeachment

While we settle into member questioning, here's our latest on today's hearing -- featuring legal experts, procedural fights and a hint at the articles of impeachment likely to come cnn.com/2019/12/04/pol…

Rep. Gohmert gonna wake the hearing room up. And Jordan, Gaetz to follow on the Republican side soon

Rep. Jordan is citing 16 Judiciary Dems (it was 4 on Intel) who had already voted to move forward on impeachment -- that's a reference to a procedural vote an impeachment resolution brought by Rep. Al Green

Rep. Jordan's temporary addition to the Intel Committee means there are now four lawmakers on both Intel and Judiciary (Jordan, Ratcliffe, Swalwell and Demings)

Rep. Buck is asking Turley if the other witnesses would think various actions of past presidents would constitute abuse of power, based on their definition.

Can't see the faces of the other witnesses as he ignores them to focus on Turley.

Turley says "so many witnesses have not been subpoenaed" -- it's true that Bolton, a key witness, was not subpoenaed. But Democrats say that's because he threatened to go to court if they did.

Others did receive subpoenas for docs and testimony and did not respond to them.

GOP lawmakers haven't given Dem academics a chance to respond, and Dem lawmakers haven't given GOP witness a chance.

Roby now gives Turley a chance as she starts her questioning

Rep. Gaetz is the Republican to really engage with the Democratic legal experts -- raising their campaign contributions and previous tweets/articles

Gaetz really getting into it w/ Karlan, says she looks "mean" when she makes a joke about Barron Trump

We're back -- only 20 members to go!

Nunes has entered the hearing room...currently chatting with Meadows in the audience

THE Ukraine #drink

You get a UC request and you get a UC request, and we're adding realtime articles and tweets to the record

Karlan now apologizes for referencing Barron's son earlier in saying that Trump could not name him a baron.

Rep. Nadler tries to wrap up member questioning -- forgetting Rep. Escobar.

But she is the LAST member to ask questions today, so we're almost there.

Collins concluding remarks begin: "Well, today has been interesting, to say the least."

Collins says there was no reason for the President to send counsel to this hearing: At the end of the day, "nothing came of" the hearing, he says

Nadler says he will review the request for a minority day of hearings, before going into his closing statement