Reporters Notebook, Washington D.C.

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EXTRA Collegian Monday, December 9, 2019 Volume 183 No.7

REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK

The Voice of Los Angeles City College Since 1929

MEET THE REAL D.C. DOGS PAGE 6

FIND FELLOWSHIPS, INTERSHIPS, IN THE NATIONAL CAPITOL PAGE 7

L.A. City College Triumph Pg. 2

75 YEARS LATER

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM SHOWS THE HORRORS OF NAZI ATROCITIES DURING WWII

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Quid Pro Show Congress Sends Historic Message BY JAMES DUFFY V

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Photo by JAMES DUFFY V Cars approach the U.S. Capitol Building from Pennsylvania Avenue on Oct. 31, 2019. The House of Representatives voted to approve rules for presidential impeachment hearings that morning.

undreds of visitors swarmed the Capitol Building to witness the House vote on impeachment rules. Lines of people snaked around corridors and clogged metal detector checkpoints. L.A. Collegian staff traveled to Washington for a journalism convention at the end of October, amid a tumult brewing on Capitol Hill. Americans have been drawing battle lines since the last civil war. Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein visited L.A. City College in October. He said the country’s divisions in the Trump era are part of a prolonged “cold civil war.” On the morning we landed, Congressional lawmakers voted to proceed with the presidential impeachment hearing. After I dropped off my luggage, I grabbed the first cab to see the House impeachment vote in an hour. Legislators on both sides of the House had a lot to say. House Democrats allege the president bribed an ally for dirt on a political rival. Other Democrats say the president violated the Constitution’s emoluments clauses by profiting from his office. All 196 House Republicans, voted against the impeachment inquiry. They say a criminal investigation of the president is politically motivated. The House Gallery admits visitors in

groups of about 15. Capitol Police send each person through an airport-style body scanner. Two women from Italy waited next to me. They were not aware of the impeachment vote when they came. Many observers only stayed a few minutes to look around the room. By the time the group was admitted to the House, members already cast their vote to approve the impeachment hearing rules. Texas Representative Kevin Ghomert took the podium. “Some historian, I don’t remember who, said guns are only involved in the last phase of a civil war,” Ghomert said. He criticized the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff, because of its confidential witness testimony. Ghomert repeatedly calling its members “gossip-mongers.” Audience members muffled their laughter. Signs posted around the House gallery say observers who disturb proceedings will be arrested. The last time I saw Schiff was November 2018 in Santa Ana. He arrived on a buss full of Democrats before a midterm election that brought the Democratic Party back to power in the House of Representatives. At a campaign rally, a labor leader said he looked forward to Schiff chairing the intelligence committee and slamming the gavel at president Trump’s associates. Schiff smiled. That was before a whis-

SEE “CAPITOL” PAGE 6


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