For the past few weeks, impeachment hearings have been held behind closed doors by three U.S. House committees. Among them is the House Intelligence Committee, including Republican Elise Stefanik of New York’s 21st district. She has been calling for open hearings yet voted against last week’s House resolution to begin the public phase of the inquiry into President Trump. Congresswoman Stefanik tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley she believes such a move would actually further secrecy.
“The resolution passed the House and there have been no changes. It still allows Adam Schiff to continue conducting these witness interviews in private without the American public’s ability to see. It doesn’t include full transparency. Even today unless you sit on the House Intelligence Committee, Foreign Affairs or the Oversight Committee members of Congress don’t have access to any of the transcripts. So it hasn’t been transparent. This has been a broken process from the beginning. If we really want to have a transparent fair process you would allow Republicans to issue subpoenas. You would also allow the President’s counsel to be a part of this process as they have been historically in any impeachment proceedings.”
An extended conversation with New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is below. You can also hear the entire interview on the latest episode of the WAMC News Podcast.
