In a move aimed at highlighting the secretive nature of House Democrats’ politically orchestrated “impeachment inquiry,” several House Republicans stormed the Intelligence Committee’s Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), where Pentagon official Laura Cooper was scheduled to testify regarding President Donald Trump and Ukraine.

Prior to storming the SCIF, House Republicans held a press conference explaining their intentions.

“What is Adam Schiff trying to hide?” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) asked. “I think that’s the question so many people have, so many of my colleagues have, so many people in the press should have. Voting members of Congress are being denied access from being able to see what’s happening behind these closed doors where they’re trying to impeach the president of the United States with a one-sided set of rules. They call the witnesses. They don’t let anybody else call the witnesses.”

Not surprisingly, after Republicans entered the room, committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-Whistleblower) quickly stopped the hearing. That provoked Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) to assert, “Adam Schiff just SHUT DOWN his secret underground impeachment hearing after I led a group of Republicans into the room. Now he’s threatening me with an Ethics complaint! I’m on the Armed Services [Committee] but being blocked from the Dept. Asst. SecDef’s testimony. This is a SHAM!”

Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS) also called out Schiff, stating, “He just got up and left. He doesn’t have the guts to tell us why we can’t come in the room, why he doesn’t want this to be transparent. It’s … the biggest farce I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Predictably, the Leftmedia derided Republicans for a political stunt designed to protect President Trump and obstruct the Democrats’ “legitimate” impeachment inquiry. There’s no question that these Republicans intentionally engaged in theatrics, but they did so to shine a spotlight on the dubious, secretive, and unprecedented manner in which House Democrats have conducted this not-yet-voted-on impeachment inquiry. And the more Republicans can expose the Democrats’ intentional lack of transparency in running this impeachment charade, the better it will be for the American people. Keep in mind that the Democrats’ favorite paper of record, The Washington Post, decided Trump’s presidency was sufficient cause to create a new motto: “Democracy dies in darkness.”

Finally, PowerLine’s Scott Johnson cogently sums it up: “I can’t take anything that leaks out of the closed-door impeachment ‘inquiry’ conducted by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff at face value. Schiff is conducting an impeachment campaign by orchestrated leaks. I decline to follow the leaked testimony until I can take a look at the full record with my own eyes.”