WASHINGTON (CN) - Impeachment of a president is rare indeed but on Wednesday the marvel of the moment runs headlong into a more familiar routine for lawmakers who will gather to debate and finally complete the articles of impeachment for President Donald Trump in a traditional legislative hearing known as a markup.
The House Judiciary Committee holds the reins at this phase in the impeachment process, and Republicans and Democrats will convene at 7 p.m. to discuss amendments proposed Tuesday to the two articles against Trump, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
If history is any guide, this markup will likely be contentious. Democrats control the committee majority: 24 Democrats to 17 Republicans.
At every turn of the impeachment inquiry, Republicans have attacked the legitimacy of the process. Now that the articles of impeachment have been unveiled, they are unlikely to abandon that strategy.
The House minority first assailed the closed-door questioning of witnesses as secret testimony in a congressional “bunker,” their derisive description of the secure facility in the basement of Congress.
Democrats defended the secrecy as a necessary part of the process, akin to a grand jury proceeding in a criminal prosecution. Their release of the closed-door testimony in full, in reams of thousands of pages of documents, has not stifled Republicans’ criticism.
More than 100 hours of testimony from 17 witnesses later — many conducted in full view of international broadcasters for the public — the House minority continues to depict the impeachment inquiry as a proverbial Star Chamber, the English court that became a symbol of political oppression, in which President Trump’s due-process rights have been violated.
Trump boycotted the proceedings, explaining his position in a two-paragraph missive from White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
In raising procedural objections to the process, Republican Congress members have interrupted witness testimony to raise multiple motions — among them, bids to schedule a minority hearing and expose the whistleblower who set the impeachment inquiry in motion — with little success.
Making liberal use of his gavel, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York has tabled these motions with a united Democratic front behind him.
Republicans typically have dragged out the process by pushing their motions to a roll call, even when it has become clear that they are outvoted in the committee.
Where this road ends for the committee, however, won’t be revealed Wednesday night.
The markup hearing is scheduled over two days with the second session held on Thursday at 9 a.m. Once completed, the finalized articles head to the full House for a vote, likely sometime early next week.
Forty-five years ago the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of impeaching then-President Richard Nixon, but the final vote included its share of pushback as committee Republicans initially rejected the process with as much vehemence as seen from GOP committee members today.