Just like Watergate. Only bigger.
The impeachment will be televised – or at least, this week’s impeachment inquiry hearings will be.
The top broadcast television networks and top cable news networks will all air the House Intelligence Committee hearings live, according to The Hill. That means ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS will all pre-empt their regularly scheduled programming. MSNBC, Fox News, and C-SPAN will also air the hearings live. CBS’s website CBSN is also expected to offer “wall-to-wall” online streaming, and others, including PBS are expected to as well. The House Intel Committee has already scheduled the live hearings videos to its YouTube channel.
Several news outlets are comparing this week’s hearings, which are expected to attract millions upon millions of viewers, to the Watergate hearings in 1973. The Associated Press on Monday called those historic hours – nearly 250 across 51 nights – “a communal experience, and by some estimates, more than 80% of Americans tuned in to at least part of the Watergate telecasts.”
The Watergate hearings ran from May to November 1973, 46 years ago. President Richard Nixon ended up resigning the following year in August.
This week’s hearings kick off on Wednesday, with testimony from Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent. Taylor is Chargé D’affaires for Ukraine for the U.S. State Dept. Kent is responsible for the European and Eurasian Bureau at the State Dept.
On Friday, former Ukraine Ambassador Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch will testify before the Committee.