Senate-Crowder Hearings (Return of Feudalism)

The Senate-Crowder hearings were hearings between top members of the Crowder administration and several United States senators after the aftermath of the 1952 Area 51 Nuclear Explosion.

Background
On August 12th, 2052, a nuclear meltdown happened at a hidden nuclear facility beneath the facility of Area 51. This came 2 months after the Department of Energy rolled back nuclear energy regulations after a lobbying group known as the Appalachian Energy Corporation began massive lobbying into several GOP members of Congress. Nearly all the democrats, libertarians, as well as a large portion of Republicans began calling for Crowder’s impeachment for “succumbing to bribery and misdemeanors”. 1 week after the destruction of Area 51, the senate and the house unanimously voted to begin impeachment hearings.

Hearings
The hearings officially began on August 28th, 2052. The 3 officials who were questioned during day 1 of the hearings were political consultant Anne Liu, Secretary of Energy Chris Jonathan, and head of the Appalachian Energy Corporation Shane Fleischman. Anne Liu was brought into testimony due to her alleged involvement in the meeting between AEC head Shane Fleischman and President Crowder involving the deregulation of the Energy Department. Several senators from all 3 parties including Daniel Gadish, Emma Barnett, Justin Amash, Levi Sanders, and Nicholas Robinson all questioned Liu and the others. Ultimately, Liu stood her ground and continued to defend her position of not being present during the meeting between Fleischman and Crowder. When Secretary Johnson testified, he was cornered in many aspects due to his complicit role in rolling back energy regulations. Johnson failed to answer many of the questions. One of the most notable examples is when Democratic senator Emma Barnett asked Secretary Johnson if he had any knowledge of the future implications of deregulating industry, Johnson failed to provide a proper answer. Johnson’s poor performance in the hearing lead to him being fired later that day. At around 6:02 PM, the hearing of Shane Fleischman began. Fleischman’s trial was the most heated, with a back and forth between Senator Gadish and Fleischman lasting nearly 12 minutes. The hearing went on until 11:00 PM with the rest of it expected to continue tomorrow. - Day 2 - On day 2, Fleischman’s hearings continued for another 3 hours before ending. The senate judiciary committee overwhelmingly believed that the suspects at hand played a big role in the Area 51 nuclear explosion, but the republicans controlled House of Representatives and House Speaker Steven Matteo promised to not confirm any vote for impeachment. With this, Crowder served out the rest of his first term as relations between him and Vice President George P. Bush worsened.

Aftermath
Steven Crowder lost his re-election bid in a landslide to Massachusetts Governor Kyle Kullinski and his running mate NYC Mayor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This was the first time that a Democratic ticket won the White House in nearly 30 years. The rest of the 2050s would see the republicans lose control of the house. The republicans would lose up until the Shapiro Revolution of the Republican Party in the 2060s.