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Impeachment hearings: Start time, witnesses, how to watch and stream

The impeachment inquiry of President Trump will shift from private depositions to public hearings Wednesday morning.

Chairman Adam Schiff will use the House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, the largest hearing room in the House, to hold the first public session in the impeachment probe.
Chairman Adam Schiff will use the House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, the largest hearing room in the House, to hold the first public session in the impeachment probe.Read moreJ. Scott Applewhite / AP

The impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump will go live in front of the cameras Wednesday morning, with the first public hearing in the House Intelligence Committee scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

At issue is whether Trump abused the power of his office by holding back security assistance in an attempt to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation involving Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

You can also follow along live here, courtesy of PBS:

Testifying Wednesday are two witnesses who have already shed light about the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine — top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine William Taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent. Former Ukranian ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted from her post following a campaign led by former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is scheduled to testify Friday.

Unlike previous committee hearings that have aired on television, rules approved by the Democratic-run House of Representatives will allow Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee to conduct multiple rounds of questioning, alternating sides every 45 minutes.

The public hearings will be hard to miss, as most broadcast networks will preempt their normal programming to cover the hearings Wednesday and Friday. In Philadelphia, 6ABC, NBC10, CBS3, and WHYY-TV will all carry full network coverage of the hearings, while Fox29 plans to only carry the opening statements live. All of the major cable news networks, including CNN, CSPAN, Fox News, and MSNBC, will also provide live coverage.

» LIVE UPDATES: Highlights from Wednesday’s public impeachment hearing

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of today’s public impeachment hearings:

What time do the impeachment hearings start?

Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) is scheduled to begin the hearings at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Both Schiff and Rep. Adam Nunes (R., Calif), the committee’s ranking member, will both offer opening statements before the witnesses offering their own opening statements and testimony.

» READ MORE: What’s coming in Trump impeachment: The inquiry goes public

Who are the two witnesses who will testify?

First up will be William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine (also known as the chargé d’affaires). Taylor is a career diplomat, having served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, including three years as the ambassador to Ukraine under former President Barack Obama. Though Trump has called Taylor a “never Trumper,” the diplomat was personally recruited into his current post by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

According to transcripts released last week, Taylor told lawmakers it was his “clear understanding” there was a quid pro quo at work in Ukraine, with the administration making it clear funds would not be released until Zelensky “committed to pursue the investigation” into the Bidens and the gas company Burisma.

» READ MORE: Ambassador’s testimony offers window into impeachment inquiry’s first public hearing

» READ MORE: U.S. envoy says he was told release of Ukraine aid was contingent on public declaration to investigate Bidens, 2016 election

Following Taylor will be George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department who oversees European and Eurasian affairs. Kent also testified about the pressure placed on Zelensky to publicly announce an investigation, but added that Trump explicitly wanted to hear the names of two of his Democratic rivals.

“POTUS wanted nothing less than President Zelensky to go to the microphone and say, investigation, Biden and Clinton,” Kent testified, according to the transcript released by the Intelligence Committee.

Who will be questioning the two witnesses?

Thanks to a format that allows for extended questioning, both Republicans and Democrats are expected to yield significant time to two attorneys who have already spent hours questioning witnesses behind closed doors.

Republicans will reportedly turn to Steve Castor, who made news recently when he openly said the alleged name of a whistleblower during his private questioning of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a top Trump national security adviser. Castor graduated from Penn State and and earned an MBA from Lehigh University before taking up law at George Washington. Prior to joining the Oversight Committee staff in 2005, Castor spent four years practicing commercial litigation at Blank Rome in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., according to Bloomberg.

Democrats are expected to lean on Daniel Goldman, the committee’s director of investigations. Like Castor, Goldman has been involved in impeachment inquiry’s private questioning of witnesses. Prior to joining the Intelligence Committee, he served as the served as assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, and spent time as a legal analyst for MSNBC.

How are the networks covering the impeachment hearings?

ABC

Start time: 10 a.m.

Anchor: Chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Analysis: World News Tonight anchor David Muir, chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl, chief legal analyst Dan Abrams, contributor Kate Shaw

Streaming: Live coverage on ABCNews.com

Local affiliate: 6ABC

CBS

Start time: 10 a.m.

Anchor: CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell

Analysis: Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan, CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett, contributors Jonathan Turley and Kim Wehle

Streaming: Live coverage on CBSN

Local affiliate: CBS3

Fox

Start time: 10 a.m.

Anchor: Outnumbered Overtime anchor Harris Faulkner

Streaming: Live coverage on FoxNews.com at 9 a.m.

Local affiliate: Fox 29 (will only carry the opening statements live)

NBC

Start Time: 10 a.m.

Anchors: NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, NBC News chief legal correspondent and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, Meet the Press moderator and NBC News political director Chuck Todd

Streaming: Live coverage on NBC News NOW and NBCNews.com

Local affiliate: NBC10

PBS

Start time: 10 a.m.

Anchor: PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff.

Analysis: Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins, White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, foreign affairs and defense correspondent Nick Schifrin, Beacon Global Strategies managing director Michael Allen, Third Way vice president Mieke Eoyang

Local affiliate: WHYY-TV

How are cable news networks covering the impeachment hearings?

C-SPAN

Start time: 10 a.m.

Streaming: Live coverage will be streamed on C-SPAN.org.

CNN

Start time: 8 a.m.

Streaming: Live coverage will be streamed on CNN.com and across mobile devices through the CNN app.

Fox News

Start time: 9 a.m.

Anchors: Special Report anchor Bret Baier, The Story anchor Martha MacCallum, America’s Newsroom anchors Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith.

Analysis: Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, former independent counsel Ken Starr and former assistant U.S. attorney Andrew McCarthy.

Streaming: Live coverage on FoxNews.com at 9 p.m.

MSNBC

Start time: 9 a.m.

Hosts: The 11th Hour host Brian Williams, Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace

Analysis: The Beat’s Ari Melber

Streaming: Live coverage will be streamed on MSNBC.com.