Republicans barging into secure room to stall impeachment inquiry highlights another wild day

In Thursday's biggest development, nearly two dozen Republican lawmakers -- led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida -- barged into a deposition and demanded they be allowed to see the closed-door proceedings. Members of three committees planned to interview Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper as part of the impeachment probe into President Donald Trump. It delayed Cooper's testimony by hours.

The chaotic scene, with Republicans flouting House rules to make a political point, represented a new and more confrontational phase of the GOP attack on House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of California and the Democratic impeachment investigation, wrote Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb.

A lot of people, including Democrats and publications, are using the term "stormed" to refer to what these lawmakers did. But for me that conjures the image of soldiers on the beaches at Normandy. I like "barged" better, even though there was apparently a fair amount of yelling.

The image of Republican congressmen storming the hearing also confused Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He tweeted:
"I was initially told House GOP took the SCIF by force -- basically like a GOP version of Occupy Wall Street. Apparently it was a peaceful protest. Big difference. I understand their frustration and they have good reason to be upset."

Occupy Wall Street bad. Delay Impeachment Inquiry good.

A GOP congressman involved in Wednesday's protest told CNN's Dana Bash that the protest had been on his calendar for about a week.
However, it was initially called as a traditional press conference. It wasn't until it was actually happening that this person -- obviously not an organizer -- realized they were going to actually go to the SCIF.
Trump, who had met with some of the lawmakers involved in the protest at the White House on Tuesday, had advance knowledge of the plans to attempt entry to the SCIF, a person familiar with the matter told CNN's Kevin Liptak.