Republicans intend to "shut down" a House Oversight Committee hearing with former Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen to protect the president, according to NBC News reporter Heidi Przybyla.
The reporter told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the committee's ranking member, and other GOP lawmakers will repeatedly attempt procedural motions to interrupt, halt and stall Cohen's testimony.
"That is 100 percent expected," Przybyla said. "I talked to a number of Democratic aides yesterday who said you may want to bring a good book because there will be so many attempts -- if you look at some of the members on this committee, like Jim Jordan, who are stalwart protectors of this president -- they will attempt whenever it is in their estimation that the testimony or questioning is veering from this narrow set of topics the chairman had released, that they're going to try and shut it down. This could, therefore, lead to a very long hearing."
Cohen testified Tuesday before closed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and he will testify Thursday before a closed hearing of the House Intelligence Committee.
"The stakes couldn't be higher," Przybyla said. "There are many members who are kind of like to the far left and to the far right, if you want to characterize it that way, who are going to be throwing bombs and it could kind of slow down this hearing."
"There are going to be members who, despite the chairman's promise this isn't going to go into Russia, are going to go there and push Michael Cohen and force him and his lawyers to make a decision about how far they want to go releasing that information, even though the chairman cut deals with SDNY and the Department of Justice and the House Intelligence chair to not go there," she added. "I'm fully expecting this to have a lot of fireworks."
