Rachel Maddow Explains How GOP Decision To Blow Off Fusion GPS Hearing Backfired In A Big Way

Rachel Maddow dissected the explosive and newly released transcript from the Fusion GPS hearing, saying one unique aspect of Glenn Simpson’s testimony is how much control the Democrats had over it.

Republicans, she said, essentially blew off the hearing, which gave Simpson ample time to shed light on his research, which ultimately led to the infamous Russia dossier.

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Maddow said:

For this hearing and for most of this transcript, the Republicans appear to have just left. I don’t know if they had other important stuff to do or didn’t want to participate but Democrats get to run the table. They get to ask Simpson about what Fusion found in the research. What they thought was important, why they believed it was true. Simpson just gets to explain what he and his researchers found about Trump’s business career that led them to believe that it was a credible allegation when their subcontractor Christopher Steele reported that the Russian government had been involved in a years-long campaign and to make him blackmailable by the time the presidential election rolled around.

Republicans not troubling themselves to play an active role in the hearing gave Democrats a chance to shed light on the important questions that need answering – and they got them.

As I wrote earlier, some of the claims made by Simpson in his testimony were explosive, including one in which he says Trump has shown “patterns of buying and selling that we thought were suggestive of money laundering.”

GOP members of Congress may think they were doing Donald Trump a favor by blowing off this hearing and not taking the overall Russia investigation seriously, but the more hands-off they are, the more hands-on the Democrats will be – meaning the truth is more likely to see the light of day.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.