Rep. Matt Gaetz is leading a group of Republicans in a protest of Dems and their closed impeachment proceeding this morning outside of the SCIF in the House of Representatives:

Rep. Gaetz: Dems are “obsessed with attacking” the president with “secret interviews, selective leaks”https://t.co/Mn4y88wurI pic.twitter.com/bTwsM3OYAO — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 23, 2019

Journos are calling it a “phalanx” of Republicans:

Matt Gaetz says he’s about to lead this phalanx of House Republicans into the SCIF to check out what’s going on with the whole impeachment thing pic.twitter.com/iFyxqMgcsr — Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) October 23, 2019

Just open the hearings to the public already:

Rep Andy Biggs says Democrats don’t want open hearings because of how Mueller’s testimony went. Says the report fell apart because “we got to observe Mueller himself testify” — Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) October 23, 2019

A “This is Sparta!” moment?

Update: This group of about 20 House Republicans is barging into the SCIF. pic.twitter.com/IZQ8J4YSNq — Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) October 23, 2019

It looks like some of them made it inside and have delayed today’s testimony by Defense official Laura Cooper:

More than two dozen House conservatives rail on Schiff and the process outside the closed impeachment proceedings, and have now entered the SCIF – and they are bound to be kicked out bc they don’t serve on the three committees conducting the probe. It is being led by Matt Gaetz — Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 23, 2019

New drama: Roughly two dozen House conservatives stormed the secure hearing room – known as the SCIF – to rail on the process, delaying the Cooper testimony. Connolly said that Louie Gohmert and Bradley Byrne were yelling in the room and railing on what they call a sham process. — Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 23, 2019

The conservatives walked into hearing room with their electronics, Connolly said, which is prohibited in the room. Mike Conaway of Texas collected the electronics. Laura Cooper testimony has been delayed because of the disruption; Schiff is consulting with the sergeant of arms. — Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 23, 2019

As of the writing of this post, the stand-off continues.

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Related:

Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy say John Ratcliffe 'destroyed' Taylor's argument. Why won't Adam Schiff release the transcript? https://t.co/B1HUMFgrLE — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 23, 2019