Minutes into the impeachment hearings, they are already going off the rails.  THEPOLITICALINSIDER.COM  Shelby Talcott on Nov,13, 2019

The first public impeachment hearing into President Donald Trump began Wednesday with arguments over whether or not to out a whistleblower.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff began the hearing with his opening statements, saying that the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine was an impeachable offense and questioning whether Trump was trying to “exploit” the country’s “vulnerability” for his own personal gain. The inquiry, which is based on an August whistleblower complaint, has received pushback from Republicans who have voiced support for being able to question the person behind the complaint.

Arguments broke out after opening statements about who the whistleblower is and whether House members will be able to question the person. Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik announced a point of order before hearing from two witnesses. She noted that “only one member and their staff on this committee has direct knowledge of the identity of the whistleblower” and wondered if Schiff would be preventing witnesses from answering members’ questions as he had “in the closed-door depositions.”

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