Dozens of House Republicans stormed the secure location where bipartisan impeachment hearings were being held last Wednesday, Oct. 23. Led by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the mob of old white men forced a delay to the proceedings just days after the top U.S. envoy to Ukraine told House impeachment investigators President Trump sought to withhold critical military aid unless he investigated Trump’s election rivals. 

The GOP House members who do not sit on any of the inquiry committees refused to leave the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in the basement of the Capitol building, prompting a standoff that was eventually broken up by the House sergeant-at-arms. The standoff lasted five hours before they were led away.

On top of the delay, people familiar with the matter reported that some of the Republican lawmakers brought their cellphones into the secure area, which is very much in violation of the House rules. They refused to completely remove their devices even after being reprimanded by security personnel and the House sergeant-at-arms.

The Republicans decided to take matters into their own hands after Trump demanded Republicans “get tough and fight” for him in the impeachment probe, and like good little boys they followed their father’s orders. The Republicans knew they would be turned away from the room, as none of them sat on the inquiry committee. So they turned to other, more intelligent methods of breaching the bunker of liberal lies.

“They basically ran over a member of the staff,” according to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), to enter the secure room. “They just came into the room and started shouting about the president. Literally some of them were just screaming … saying that the process is wrong.”

So far, the impeachment inquiry has been done behind closed doors to protect the integrity of the investigation and stay within House rules, according to House Democrats. Republicans have said that the depositions should be done in public, which eventually led to this clash last week.

But the neat little fact that really puts a question mark on this Republican angst is that more than 45 House Republicans already have full access to the depositions through their membership on one of the three panels that are leading the impeachment inquiry—the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees. That totals nearly a quarter of the House GOP that has access to these hearings.

So in reality, the Republican party does have representation in the impeachment hearings, most of them are just sad that they were not invited to the party and have decided to throw temper tantrums about it. It really makes you wonder at the state of GOP policy when planning a publicity stunt is the best way to take attention away from the fact that they don’t know how to act their age.

Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski summarized the raid well, stating there was no reason besides attempting to save face and make a scene that these Representatives needed to interrupting the hearings.

“It’s a bunch of Freedom Caucus members having pizza around a conference table pretending to be brave,” Rep Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) said. “All they basically did here was to storm a castle that they already occupied.”