"We start with a bizarre turn on Capitol Hill when as many as two dozen House Republicans upset over the impeachment inquiry stormed a secure hearing room," CNN's Brianna Keilar reported. "Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia was getting ready to answer questions at the time. This is pretty extraordinary."
"It is," CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju replied.
"Earlier today, the Republicans who are not part of this proceedings railed on the process. Roughly two dozen or so conservatives came out demanding to be part of this impeachment inquiry. Then they stormed into the secure hearing place," he reported.
"Some of them were still holding their electronics, which is not allowed in the secure hearing space. But they came in, demanded to be part of it," he explained. "One congressman, Bradley Byrne (R-AL) got in the face of Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, and yelled at him about the process. Also, Louie Gohmert, a congressman from Texas, was shouting about the process."
Laura Cooper, who was the witness, actually left while this was taking place.
"I did get a chance to catch up with one Republican who was part of this effort, Mo Brooks (R-AL), and tried to engage him about the things that have been revealed by the president’s top diplomat in Ukraine raising concerns about how the president apparently wanted investigations to be announced that could help him politically in exchange for releasing military aid and Brooks pushed back," he noted.
CNN then played a clip of Raju attempting to interview Brooks.
"The opening statement says very clearly —" Raju began, before getting cut off.
"The opening statement doesn’t make any difference," Brooks replied.
"Let me finish my question," Raju said.
But Brooks would not let him ask his question, much less answer it.
"I’m asking about the substance of what he said," Raju noted.
"That doesn’t make any difference," Brooks argued.
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