Tipsheet

Stefanik Had a Parliamentary Inquiry for Adam Schiff Ahead of Witness Statements

UPDATE: It looks like her question has been answered.

ORIGINAL POST

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) had reason to doubt how Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) would handle the first public hearing into the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday. In closed-door testimony, she noted, the Democrat has prevented witnesses from answering certain questions. She posed a parliamentary inquiry about whether he plans to do the same thing today.

"Mr. Chairman, will you be prohibiting witnesses from answering questions as you have in the closed-door depositions?" Stefanik asked ahead of the first witnesses' opening statements.

Schiff maintained that the only times he's prevented witnesses from answering questions was with the intention to protect the identity of the whistleblower who alleged that Trump tried to coerce Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden by threatening to withhold military aid.

"As the gentlewoman should know, the only times I prevented witnesses from answering questions was when it was apparent that members were seeking to out the whistleblower," he said.

He said he was disappointed that some of his colleagues seemed determined to expose the whistleblower.

"If necessary," Schiff said, he will intervene. "Otherwise, members can ask whatever questions they like."

Not everyone was impressed with Rep. Stefanik's interruption and accused her of turning into a "Trump shill." She took those criticisms as compliments.

Stefanik has been a thorn in Schiff's side for multiple hearings now. She was one of the first committee members to call out the chairman for embellishing parts of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Stefanik and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) both pointed out that only one member, Schiff, knows the identity of the whistleblower. Oddly, Schiff rejected that notion. Reports revealed that the whistleblower had contacted the Intelligence Committee before filing his complaint.