Why must everyone act like criticism of other politicians is somehow defending Trump? The committee could question him, on the record. Oversight responsibiliti

Why must everyone act like criticism of other politicians is somehow defending Trump? The committee could question him, on the record. Oversight responsibilities are, by definition, reactive, hands off, public, and transparent. Any one-on-one should have been through the IG, not Schiff. Regardless, impeachment is an inherently political process (as was intended), which means optics matter. And Schiff has really screwed this aspect of it up, no matter how "relatively clean" he might seem compared to other politicians. If there's one thing Americans hate more than corrupt politicians, it's hypocritical corrupt politicians. If there are two things, it's that and being backed into a corner, politically. Both are reasons why Trump was elected in the first place, even though I'd argue most of his voters weren't as thrilled about voting for him as he'd have you believe. Schiff's methods are only serving to stir this up again, regardless of whether some think the ends justify the means. >if you sincerely believe that witnesses have been coached then you have crossed a line somewhere that you probably should not have crossed. Because politicians would never do something so corrupt? We'll see what comes out. But at this point, Schiff needs to do some serious disclosures on what was discussed between him and the witnesses before the report was filed, including if he suggested waiting on the timing, for the IG rule change. Which is why he should never have put himself in that position to begin with. It soils the integrity of the entire thing. It stops looking like an investigation, and starts looking like an orchestrated coup. If Al Capone's prosecutor would have been caught doing such things, they wouldn't have even gotten him on the tax charges. If Trump gets impeached, but the prosecution looks dirty, it'll all but guarantee he's re-elected. The sense of injustice will motivate voters far more than whoever's name happens to be on the ballet. I'm not saying that's what should happen, only what's likely.