US: Televised Impeachment Hearings Can Damage Both Parties

Democrats keep pouring fuel to the fire that currently surrounds U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment process, as their recent decision to publically televise the hearings after weeks of testimony has been met with much criticism from the Republicans in Congress. 

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This decision, Reuters says, is a step into more politically perilous terrain for the party seeking to persuade Americans that their cause to remove this Republican figure, who they accuse of abusing his power, is justified.

It´s imperative to remember that the deal breaker for Democrats was Donald Trump asking the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on 2020 presidential candidatel, Joe Biden, who hopes to oust him from the White House in the coming election.

However, Mike Eoyang, a former aide to the House Intelligence Committee who works for the Democratic think tank Third Way, states that this move represents a great political risk for both parties. If the hearings can damage Republicans and the president himself, the impeachment promulgators should remain neutral and trustworthy investigators, he says.

“The allegations – and what the president has admitted to – are serious enough. They don’t need embellishment. They just need explanation,” Eoyang explains.

Lawmakers will have to avoid the urge to grandstand before a TV audience of millions. “The hardest thing for members in an open hearing is to remember they are not the star of the thing,” he says.

President Donald Trump has denied any wrongdoings and rejected all the accusations. The expectation is that he won´t be convicted at any trial in the Senate because it is controlled by his party, even if a House majority voted to impeach, similar to being indicted.

This wouldn´t be the first time hearings are televised and they will be a ratings bonanza for television networks as Democratic President Bill Clinton’s impeachment case was in the 1990s.