Senators say they'll tune out next week's public impeachment hearings: "This is a bunch of crap"

“I’m not gonna promise to sit in my office and watch these hearings,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Newsweek. “I think the whole thing’s a joke. I made up my mind.”

In particular, Republicans’ plans not to watch is in direct contradiction to their gripes in recent weeks about the secretiveness in which the House’s inquiry has been conducted via a secure room of the Capitol away from the public eye. They’ve demanded that the process play out in the public’s view and have chastised the way House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has led the investigation.

“It is really hard to follow what’s going on in the House because they’re selectively leaking out different documents,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). “It’s hard to follow what they’re doing.”

However, when prompted if she’ll watch the public hearings next week, Ernst responded: “I have my own work to get done, too.”