Look for C-SPAN to draw a crowd this afternoon as the Senate Judiciary Committee grills former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and a high-profile court case involving the Trump Administration allows real-time audio.
It probably won't hurt viewership of the Hill hearing that President Donald Trump tweeted the following Monday morning: "Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council."
Yates, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, was fired by Trump in late January after she refused to enforce his travel ban, which a court has since found unlawful.
Clapper, also an Obama appointee, exited his post after the election.
C-SPAN has something of an embarrassment of riches Monday, thanks in part to the President's second attempt at a travel ban.
At the exact same 2:30 p.m. start time of the judiciary hearing, C-SPAN will be airing oral argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on that revised travel ban (International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump).
A C-SPAN spokesperson said that both will be streamed online unauthenticated, meaning they will be available to all, not just subscribers. The judiciary hearing will be here and the travel ban argument here.
C-SPAN's suite of networks is a public service provided by the cable industry.
