At least by my lights, the most pathetic moment in this week of hearings into El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago's unsuccessful shakedown of the government of Ukraine came late in the afternoon session. For several days, Will Hurd, Republican of Texas, and a young congresscritter who’s already announced that he’s bailing out, has been what passed for a voice of cool reason on the Republican side of the House Intelligence Committee. His questions often sought to elicit information about how the country could keep future elections from being ratfcked, and his smooth, FM-DJ voice was a welcome relief from the screeching of the flying monkeys on his side of the dais.

Consequently, it was a considerable letdown on Thursday afternoon when Hurd wrapped up his time for questioning Dr. Fiona Hill and David Holmes with this sad pile of mush.

We have learned a few things. The officials on the July 25th call have many different opinions on whether the call was concerning or not and just because Vice President Biden is running for president does not mean that corruption related to Burisma, Ukraine's largest natural gas companies and American ties to it are not correct there is a lot we do don't know. We have not heard from Rudy Giuliani. Haven't heard from Hunter Biden. I'd like to know more about both activities. Why they talked to who and to whom. Despite promising from Chairman Schiff we have not heard from the whistle-blower. Something that can occur in a closed setting without violating his or her anonymity. We need to understand the motivations and level of coordination that happened prior to his or her submission of the complaint. Over the past few weeks and even today it's been reited in 2017 about. The trump administration maid the decision to provide lethal aid to Ukraine after the Obama refused.

President Zelensky has [made] significant anti-corruption efforts including eliminating the parliamentary immunity from prosecution... So where does this leave us? An impeachable offense should be compelling, overwhelmingly clear and unambiguous. And it's not something to be rushed or taken lightly. I have not heard evidence proving the president committed bribery or extortion. I also reject the notion that holding this view means supporting all the foreign policy choices we have been hearing about over the last few weeks. To paraphrase Tim Morrison's testimony this week every day the national conversation is focused on impeachment not the illegal occupation of Crimea not the need for reforms in Ukraine government and economy. It's a day where we are not focused on shared national security interest with Kyiv. I hope we went let the partisan process keep us from agreeing on how a free and prospersous Ukraine is important to the security of the Ukrainian people, the United States of America, and the rest of the world.

Famously, Hurd drove with Beto O’Rourke from Texas to Washington in what became an allegedly iconic moment of livestreaming bipartisanship and a demonstration of How It Ought To Be. Well, that’s gone for good, thank the Lord. Will Hurd is a Republican and, being a Republican, he has dedicated himself to being complicit in the raging symptoms of the prion disease that now has eaten away all of the party’s higher functions. He’s on board and, watching Hurd surrender to stuff and nonsense, we got a look at what an eventual Senate impeachment trial will look like.

Hurd joined the crazy train. Samuel Corum Getty Images

There is no Republican senator who will vote to remove the president*. There is no Republican senator who will call his fellow Republicans to account for the damage they’ve done in enabling this president*, and in enabling his scrimey little shakedown scheme. In the majority, they will out the whistleblower. They will call Hunter Biden and very likely his old man. They will call all the litany of public servants who have haunted the minds of Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan. The trial will be a mess, and, if you don’t believe me, take a look at what Congressman Chris Stewart, Republican of Utah, had to say on Thursday.

And now we're going on to the main event and that's in the U.S. Senate, and in the U.S. Senate there won't be secret testimony. There's not going to be a chairman that refuses to let us ask appropriate questions or deny a defense. Where in the world, where this the country do you have a trial where the prosecution presents their case and the defense isn't able to. So we'll finally be able to get to the truth. So I'm talking to my colleagues in the Senate, these are some of the witnesses that you need to call and these are some of the questions that you need to ask. First, you have to hear from the whistleblower. Now, they can choose to do that in closed session if they want to. I leave that up to them. But you can't initiate an impeachment of the president of the United States and not have to answer some questions.

Who did he get his information from? Did he have the classification and the clearances to get that information. What's his relationship with Vice President Biden. Who has he shared that information with, including some members of the committee here. I think our own chairman needs to be called. What interactions did he or his staff have with the whistleblower? Did they help to coordinate or in any way facilitate the complaint? Did they coordinate and facilitate council, what about Hunter Biden, how did he get his job? What did he do to earn his salary, and here's the key to this, look if he goes there and makes money, knock yourself out. I don't care, but I want to know did he have officials or conversations with government officials and was government policy changed at a particularly high level because of some of those? Devin archer, former board member from Burisma, Alexandria Chalupa, provided anti-Trump information to the DNC and hardship, Nelly Orr from Fusion GPS who helped create the ridiculous Steele dossier.

That’s the great frigate of unreason and ratfcking onto which Will Hurd signed aboard Thursday afternoon. It doesn’t matter that he was one of the last people to jump aboard because there simply is no way off. You buy a ticket to bedlam, you get the whole damn tour.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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