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It's an acronym. in the basement of the capitol where laura cooper, the pentagon official in charge of ukraine, was supposed to be today's testifying witness. republicans held up the deposition for five hours. they ordered pizza, among other things, to call attention to what they say is an unfair impeachment process without transparency. >> behind those doors they intend to overturn the results of an american presidential election. we want to know what's going on. >> i think the american people, as i said before, they understand fairness and they instinctively know that what is happening here ...

>> several outstanding members of congress, these are warriors. these are people that fight with me all the time on the witch hunts. i've had the mueller witch hunt, the russia witch hunt. we've got to stick together. we've got to stick together. >> today's witness, laura cooper, left that delayed deposition three hours after it finally got under way, five hours late. her testimony comes amid the fallout from yesterday. what ambassador bill taylor revealed in his opening statement to lawmakers, he directly tied trump to the ukraine pressure campaign and noted rudy giuliani's role in statecraft...

Press. eugene robinson, pulitzer prize-winning columnist for the "washington post." and melanie zanona back with us, congressional reporter for politico. welcome to you all. back to the broadcast. eugene, i'd like to begin with you. this effort to slow down the works, to toss a log in front of the wheels, can it work? will it work? >> well, to slow it down, it slowed it down by five hours today. but ultimately can it work? no. if you're in the minority in the house of representatives, you have essentially zero power. the democrats under speaker nancy pelosi have the power and the authority to ...

>> what we're talking about tonight chiefly is a day of a kind of staged drama, as we said at the top of the broadcast. this term we're using to describe what happened today is stunt. i don't think any jury would convict us for misuse of that term. to invoke another title, a tipping point, there a tipping point when stunts add up and collapse under their own weight to the momentum of the forces of change? >> right. and i hesitated with the word "stunt" today. i kind of struggled with that because in a way, that suggests not to take this seriously, right? it's a stunt, and it was done for displ...

Saying. let me finish my question. he says -- >> you should not be relying on it. >> i'm asking you about the substance of what he said. >> it doesn't make any difference. we don't know whether he said is true or not because of the sham process that's being used. >> however, the number two republican in the senate, john thune of south dakota, who is normally one half of the human backdrop behind any mitch mcconnell senate appearance, had this response to a question about the impact of taylor's deposition. >> the picture coming out of it based on the reporting that we've seen is, yeah, i would ...