Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, asks questions of witnesses US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent during the first public hearings held by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Two senior US State Department officials testified Wednesday on the first day of public impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives.

George Kent, a top State Department expert on Ukraine, and Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, described their shock at learning that President Donald Trump had pressured Ukraine to announce investigations meant to benefit him politically.

After 5 1/2 hours of testimony, White House officials, senior Republicans, and pro-Trump activists all described the detailed testimony as „boring“ and not worth paying attention to.

„This sham hearing is not only boring, it is a colossal waste of taxpayer time & money,“ the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, tweeted.

Trump said he was too busy to watch, though he sent 60 tweets about it on Wednesday.

Democrats hit back at the attempts to dismiss the testimony, which they said provided startling new evidence of wrongdoing by Trump.

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Following testimony by two senior US diplomats on the first day of the public House impeachment hearings, Republicans coalesced around a new response: The proceedings are just too boring to bother paying attention to.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador in Ukraine, added a startling new piece of evidence to the inquiry, which was launched in response to a whistleblower complaint claiming that President Donald Trump was trying to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 US election.

Taylor said that Gordon Sondland, the US’s ambassador to the European Union, told him that Trump cared more about Ukraine investigating his political rival Joe Biden than he did about Ukraine, a key regional ally of the US.

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//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1194659763965038592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

This sham hearing is not only boring, it is a colossal waste of taxpayer time & money. Congress should be working on passing USMCA, funding our govt & military, working on reduced drug pricing & so much more. @realDonaldTrump is working right now-the dems should follow his lead!

During the hearings, Republican lawmakers attacked Taylor’s testimony and that of the senior State Department official George Kent as founded on secondhand information.

Rather than engaging with the substance of the testimony, afterward senior Republicans and allies of the president changed tack and dismissed the proceeding as too „boring“ to merit attention.

„This sham hearing is not only boring, it is a colossal waste of taxpayer time & money,“ the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, tweeted.

Echoing her, Trump’s son Eric tweeted: „This is horribly boring.“ He posted the message alongside the hashtag „#Snoozefest.“

impeachment hearings bill taylor Reuters/Joshua Roberts

Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina who is a key congressional ally of the president, said during a break in the testimony that it was sending people to sleep.

„Just like all of you as reporters have your impression of what truth is, the ultimate judge will be the American people,“ he remarked, as quoted by The Hill. „And I think most of them will see what I’m seeing in that room — it’s reporters and people in the audience who are yawning because this is all about a policy difference between the president of the United States and a few people at the State Department.“

The claim was repeated by the right-wing populist website Breitbart as well as and pro-Trump activists and conspiracy theorists including Jack Posobiec, Bill Mitchell, and Ann Coulter.

Despite Trump claiming earlier Wednesday that he was too busy to watch the testimony, he seemed to have been playing close attention, retweeting scores of clips from the proceedings showing Republican representatives interviewing the officials and a video in which he alleged impeachment was a malign plot by Democrats. In total, he posted 60 tweets about the hearing during Wednesday.

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//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1194850595334582272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

& Im particularly worried about the chasing-the-circus problem in reporting these days, as I dont think that served our democracy well in the last election. An impeachment hearing is serious business. So is electing a president. In such matters, less circus/more boring facts. https://t.co/LBptLFsJGL

Democrats and other critics took issue with the characterization of events as boring, given the gravity of the occasion. Some saw the response as an attempt to distract Americans from the seriousness of the allegations laid out about Trump during the hearing.

After Reuters‘ Jeff Mason cited Eric Trump’s tweet and appeared to echo his assessment of the excitement value of the testimony, Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia, tweeted: „Is Eric Trump really the best source to assess excitement/boredom of events today? Dont you think he might have a political agenda in describing the impeachment hearing as boring? Why didnt you call me and ask me my opinion?!“