Banjamin Wittes: “This is a good opportunity to say a few words about Fiona Hill, who has been a Brookings Institution colleague for many years. Fiona is a formidable person—a first-rate mind with genuine and unusual expertise in Russia policy.”

“She was not a Trumpist, in any sense, which made her decision to go into the administration a matter of some surprise among her colleagues. For a serious Russia hand to serve in Trump’s NSC was, after all, quite a leap. I am sure that Fiona has had to make compromises as a result of the contradictions inherent in that decision. (Imagine being a serious Russia person on the NSC during and after Helsinki, for example).”

“But it should be impossible to dismiss Fiona’s testimony as that of a Never Trumper. This is someone who was not a career bureaucrat who was willing—to the confusion of much of her professional cohort—to go into government in a political role to serve under Trump on Russia.”

“One other thing—a warning to the cocky Republican member who may try to be patronizing or think he or she is gonna have a good C-SPAN moment at Fiona’s expense: Fiona is smarter than you. She knows more. And she is impatient with idiocy. You are likely to embarrass yourself.”

House Democrats chose Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York on Wednesday as the next chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, a powerful panel that has participated in the impeachment investigation of President Trump and traditionally taken a lead role in scrutinizing the executive branch.

As the most senior member of the panel, Maloney has been serving as acting chairman since the Oct. 17 death of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.). But she faced a challenge from Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (Va.), who argued to his colleagues that he was better equipped to handle the rigors of impeachment and battling Republicans intent on protecting the Trump administration from scrutiny.

In the end, Democrats chose to respect seniority, electing Maloney on a 133-86 vote.

“I’m honored by this opportunity to do more for the American people and will do my best to follow the honorable example that Chairman Cummings left for us all,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “There’s much work to be done, and I can’t wait to get started.”

“He’s been the center of attention, the center of a firing squad,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a top Biden campaign surrogate elected in 2010 to his old Senate seat. “I think the dynamic of the campaign has changed. There are more vigorous questions being posed about the policy positions of other candidates or about [their] background and record.

“No schadenfreude will be had,” Coons added, now that candidates other than Biden are drawing heat.

A Biden adviser pointed out that the former vice president has stemmed his slide in national polls. At the same time a pro-Biden super PAC is set to drop ads in Iowa and other early states. Biden received another boost during Tuesday’s impeachment hearings when a Republican-called witness, Ambassador Kurt Volker, dismissed Trump’s claims of corruption against Biden as “conspiracy theory.”

“We’ve had all the dirt and all the oppo thrown at us and we’re still standing,” said the adviser, explaining the campaign’s mindset on the eve of the debate.