Sarah Burris is a long-time veteran of political campaigns, having worked as a fundraiser and media director across the United States. She transitioned into reporting while working for Rock the Vote, Future Majority and Wiretap Magazine, covering the Millennial Generation's perspective during the presidential elections. As a political writer, Burris has had bylines at CNN, Salon.com, BNR, and AlterNet and serves as a senior digital editor for RawStory.com.
The House Oversight Committee held its first hearing on President Joe Biden's impeachment Thursday, though the three witnesses called apparently didn't actually see anything related to the impeachment – as the Democrats pointed out.
"When I walked into this hearing room, my first question was, 'Where's Rudy Giuliani?'" said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA).
Another witness, University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, went so far as to agree with Lynch that Giuliani should be there.
"This is supposed to be an inquiry on the facts against the president for potentially an impeachment, Articles of Impeachment," said Lynch. "The one person, the one person, who was an agent of President Donald Trump, was sent to Ukraine to dig up dirt, find some dirt on Joe Biden. Just like [Trump] said to the election officials in Georgia, find me 11,780 votes. Find me dirt on Joe Biden."
"And we do not have him here? We are not allowed to ask him questions. Professor Gerhardt, would it not be helpful to have a factual witness here?"
He went on to read an excerpt of the transcript of a call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump says, "Rudy very much knows what is happening. He is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him, that would be great. The other thing, there's a lot of talk about Joe Biden's son, that he stop the prosecution. A lot of people want to find out what happened. So whatever you could do with the attorney general and Rudy would be great."
Lynch explained that Trump placed Giuliani in Ukraine for the purpose of finding information on Biden. "Would that not be a useful witness?"
"It seems obvious he should be brought before the committee," said Gerhardt.