“Jerry, Jerry, JERRY!”, a frustrated Lead House Manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) could be heard calling out to his fellow Manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) as Schiff stood up only to see Nadler race by him to the microphone to answer the final question in the two day question and answer session part of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. Bemused looks on the faces of President Trump’s legal team and Senate staffers were posted online along with multiple videos of the Abbott and Costello scene (or maybe Seinfeld, one can imagine an anguished Jerry crying out, Newman!”, or as others have called it, a Leeroy Jenkins moment.)
Bottom four screen images via Rosie memos/Twitter.
The closing question, number 180, was an open ended softball from Democrat senators to the Managers, “Could you please respond to the question just given by the president’s counsel, and provide any other comments the Senate would benefit from hearing, before we adjourn for the evening?” The asking of the question itself devolved into a two-minute clown show as Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) had to go up to a befuddled presiding officer Chief Justice John Roberts and correct by hand a botched question that she had sent up to be asked.
There has been talk of tension between Schiff and Nadler over Nadler’s fiasco at the beginning of the trial where he berated senators and basically accused Republicans of treason for not voting with the Democrat Senate minority on allowing new evidence and new witnesses at the trial. Nadler’s tirade drew a rare admonishment from Chief Justice Roberts. Observers noted it appeared Nadler had been demoted Thursday as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was seated next to Schiff and has been clocked getting more time to speak than Nadler. Rumors are that Schiff wants to run for the CA senate and Jeffries wants to replace Pelosi. If they lose the House in Nov. real justice prevails and both clowns will have to sit down.
As my colleague @juliaboccagno noted, Hakeem Jeffries is now sitting next to Adam Schiff instead of Jerry Nadler, perhaps indicating a greater level of confidence in Jeffries and his performance. Per C-SPAN, Jeffries has spoken the second most of the managers, behind Schiff.
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) January 30, 2020
On to the show.
Rep. Jerry Nadler got up to get the last word in for the night. Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead impeachment manager, got up and tried to get Nadler's attention: "Jerry. Jerry. Jerry." pic.twitter.com/M5K2OBXoK1
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 31, 2020
In slo mo via the Trump campaign:
Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff…
Two impeachment fanatics chasing dreams of glory…
🔊🔊🔊🔊 pic.twitter.com/v2GXdxswSY
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 31, 2020
Short version:
😆🤣😆 … Adam Schiff did not want Nadler to be the closer.
Too late. Too bad. So sad. pic.twitter.com/LrThVFAytc
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) January 31, 2020
Close up of Senate staffers cracking up with one doing a facepalm to hide her laughter.
https://twitter.com/BOOMER4K/status/1223256911241449472
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell commented he’s never seen Nadler move that fast.
"Adam Schiff stood. He was ready to go to the podium. He only had to do about 3 steps to get there. Jerry Nadler had to do about 12.
"It's the FASTEST I've seen Jerry Nadler move, in the 25 years that I've known him." pic.twitter.com/EVziTG6Km6
— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) January 31, 2020
Screen shots captured the bemused reactions:
🤣 pic.twitter.com/yqhRnLYuzs
— Rosie Memos (@almostjingo) January 31, 2020
YouTube version for those who have trouble with Twitter videos:
Nadler’s complete answer was posted by the Democrats, but they clipped confusion around the question and the race to the mic.
Question from Senator Klobuchar, @SenatorCardin, and @ChrisVanHollen:
Could you please respond to the question just given by the president’s counsel, and provide any other comments the Senate would benefit from hearing? pic.twitter.com/fx6cU6vsMS
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) January 31, 2020
The only readily available video of the Klobuchar question fiasco that led to the Nadler-Schiff tiff was posted by someone who posits a secret message being sent. However, it would appear the only message sent was one of incompetence by the Democrats.
https://twitter.com/mattkickass/status/1223090066773307392
“KLOBUCHAR EXPLAINS: “So I had a different question, but we only had 4 minutes left, so I did the closer question and it had Cardin’s name on it, I put my name on it, but I guess I wrote AK and it wasn’t enough, so I went down there and fixed it myself in a very hands on manner.”
KLOBUCHAR EXPLAINS: "So I had a different question, but we only had 4 minutes left, so I did the closer question and it had Cardin’s name on it, I put my name on it, but I guess I wrote AK and it wasn’t enough, so I went down there and fixed it myself in a very hands on manner." https://t.co/XyL63J29xk
— Julie Tsirkin (@JulieNBCNews) January 31, 2020
UPDATE: President Trump weighs in, “Nadler ripped final argument away from Schiff, thinks Shifty did a terrible job. They are fighting big time!”
Nadler ripped final argument away from Schiff, thinks Shifty did a terrible job. They are fighting big time! https://t.co/L2qTV9pWiL
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2020