Public Trump impeachment hearings should help Democrats – but Republicans may relish them too

Testimony in front of TV cameras should be a hindrance to the president, but his party members will be there to try and muddy the Democrat case, writes Chris Stevenson

President Trump has denied all allegations made against him over Ukraine (AP)

The battle over the merits of public versus private hearings in the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump reached a flashpoint this week with Republicans barging into a high-security hearing room and ordering pizza, forcing a five-hour delay in testimony from a Pentagon official.

As witnesses have appeared for depositions, providing testimony that has left Democrats increasingly confident they can prove Trump had asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his rival Joe Biden and his family, Republicans have increasingly sought to complain about process.

The major complaint is that the behind-closed-door hearings are not transparent and the inquiry is indeed the witch-hunt that Trump has long proclaimed it to be. The president has called on Republicans to be more vocal in backing his efforts at dismissing the inquiry, and respond they did.