The basement of the Capitol was bustling on Wednesday as House Republicans stormed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) to protest the closed-door hearings in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
At this stage of the inquiry, as Fox News' Andrew Napolitano pointed out, closed-door hearings are completely customary and within the rules. There are 47 Republicans participating in the hearings, which are overseen by the House Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs committees.
Most of the House Republicans who stormed the classified hearing don't sit on the relevant committees and therefore aren't entitled to view the inquiry. However some of them do, so...their point?
Nevertheless, 30 House Republicans staged a tantrum outside of the SCIF.
As the group of mostly white men gathered, one person above them stood out.
A young woman in a blue dress standing on the level above the House Republicans, basking in a halo of light quickly began making the rounds on Resistance Twitter.
But while a picture may be worth a thousand words, this one still didn't tell the whole story.
As it turns out, the woman in the blue dress—Charli Huddleston—is a 25 year old staffer for controversial Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), a devout Trump supporter frequently referred to as Gym Jordan over the Ohio State sexual abuse scandal. Jordan endorsed the House Republicans' protest, though he sits on the relevant committees and is privy to the closed-door hearings.
Huddleston told Buzzfeed News:
"I was looking for Mr. Jordan because they were calling him to the podium. I knew he wasn't in the crowd because he was meeting with some middle-schoolers. In addition to the deposition and the SCIF, we have regular committee business as well, so I was running back and forth to the Capitol from Rayburn."
Twitter was disgruntled that they'd put the cart before the horse in making Huddleston a hero.
Alas, hopefully more heroic moments await.
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Have you listened to the first season of George Takei's podcast, 'Oh Myyy Pod!'?
In season one we explored the racially charged videos that have taken the internet by storm.
We're hard at work on season two so be sure to subscribe here so you don't miss it when it goes live.
Here's one of our favorite episodes from season one. Enjoy!
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