Power Of The Pest: How Jared Moskowitz Helped Wreck The Impeachment Inquiry

Every member of Congress knows that their five minutes of speaking time at committee hearings are an opportunity to make a memorable C-SPAN clip, but few have exploited the medium like Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.).

At House Oversight Committee meetings, the freshman congressman has ignored the custom of posing questions to witnesses and gone straight after the committee’s chair, James Comer, mocking the Kentucky Republican’s efforts to impeach President Joe Biden.

“There is no protocol or procedure on what you have to do in your five minutes,” Moskowitz told HuffPost. “You don’t have to ask questions. By the way, you don’t even have to talk on topic.”

In November, under attack from Moskowitz, Comer lost his cool, accusing the Democrat of spreading “bullshit” and looking like a Smurf.

“Gargamel was angry today,” Moskowitz said on social media afterward , referring to the fictional sworn enemy of the cartoon Smurfs.

The exchange was a notable example of what one Republican described as “failure theater” in the impeachment project, which has been doomed from the start thanks to the leftover material Republicans have been working with. Their “most corroborating” new evidence, for an already-debunked theory about Biden’s corruption, has turned out to have been made up .

Moskowitz, a 43-year-old who wears sneakers with his suits, has been one of the most visible Democrats on the committee, along with fellow first-year Reps. Jasmine Crockett (Texas), Daniel Goldman (N.Y.) and Robert Garcia (Calif.).

The committee’s most senior Democrat, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said Moskowitz has “mastered not only parliamentary rules but the fine art of debunking Russian propaganda while getting under Chairman Comer’s skin.”

A