Report: Closed-door impeachment hearing postponed after Byrne confronts Schiff

Congressmen Bradley Byrne (AL-01) and Mo Brooks (AL-05) were among a group of over 20 Republican representatives who on Wednesday charged a secure Capitol room — known as a SCIF — in order to protest and disrupt a closed-door impeachment hearing that was underway.

According to reporting by CNN and other outlets, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper was sitting down to testify in the SCIF when “the roughly couple dozen Republicans stormed through… three different doors.”

“Rep. Bradley Byrne yelled in committee Chair Adam Schiff’s face, but Schiff didn’t engage. Other Democrats, including Val Demings, screamed back at both Byrne and Rep. Louie Gohmert, who were yelling about the process,” CNN reported.

Cooper left the room and the hearing was postponed after the Republicans refused to budge.

One anonymous member of Congress reportedly told CNN, “It was closest thing I’ve seen around here to mass civil unrest.”

Brooks’ office sent out a press release explaining what happened which stated as follows:

Congressman Brooks and his GOP colleagues proceeded to the secret, Capitol basement hearing room and chanted for Socialist Democrats to “Let Us In!” When a staffer opened the door to tell congressmen they could not enter, the GOP congressmen brushed past the staffer and rushed into the Intelligence Committee’s secret impeachment proceedings. “Star Chamber” Chairman Adam Schiff (D,CA) then halted the proceedings rather than making them public to congressmen or other American citizens. Immediately thereafter, heated words erupted between Socialist Democrats and the GOP congressmen who sought to make public the sordid process by which Socialist Democrats seek to repudiate and trash the 60+ million American citizens who voted Donald Trump for President. (Note: In accord with Intelligence Committee rules, Congressman Brooks did not take his iPad or cell phone into the committee chamber.)

Byrne posted a video to his Twitter account after the event had unfolded.

Adam Schiff just SHUT DOWN his secret underground impeachment hearing after I led a group of Republicans into the room. Now he’s threatening me with an Ethics complaint! I’m on the Armed Services Cmte but being blocked from the Dept. Asst. SecDef’s testimony. This is a SHAM! pic.twitter.com/6qUMerxENC

— Rep. Bradley Byrne (@RepByrne) October 23, 2019

Additionally, before they stormed the room, Republicans held a press conference explaining their position. Brooks spoke during this prelude, saying, “The American people deserve a public and open process.”

“Bear in mind the significance of what we are talking about here today,” Brooks outlined. “We are a republic. Close to a million Americans have fought in wars— beginning with the Revolutionary War— to give us the rights to control our own destiny, and what the Socialist Democrats seek to do today is to thwart, to disregard, to repudiate the votes of 60 million Americans in the 2016 elections.”

“By golly, if they are going to do it, do it in public. Don’t hide it from the American people. Show your face so we can all see the travesty that you are trying to foist on America and the degradation of our republic that you are engaged in. We demand open proceedings, the American people deserve nothing less, their representatives in congress deserve nothing less,” he concluded.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn