The House has cleared the way for a formal impeachment inquiry, and Nancy Pelosi expects things to get started soon. “I would assume there would be public hearings in November,” Pelosi said at a roundtable forum with Bloomberg journalists. She did not, however, add any specifics beyond that, saying that closed-door depositions will continue as long as they are "productive." A separate story at Politico suggests Democrats are ready to wrap them up soon because of "diminishing returns." Related coverage:
- A split: A new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News shows a divided country: Overall, 49% of Americans say Trump should be impeached and removed from office, and 47% say he should not.
- Telling breakdown: Talk about a partisan split: 82% of Democrats want Trump removed from office, and 82% of Republicans oppose his removal. Among independents, things are more even—47% favor removal and 49% oppose it.
- One view: In the New York Times, columnist David Brooks observes that within the DC bubble, impeachment and removal seems possible. "And yet when you get outside Washington it’s hard to imagine more than one or two G.O.P. senators voting to convict." A big reason is that so many Republican voters oppose the idea, and GOP "senators will never vote to convict in the face of that." Another factor: Moderate voters in swing states also aren't fully behind the idea of ousting Trump. Pelosi has long said impeachment must have bipartisan support, and Brooks just isn't seeing it.
- Similar point: Chris Cillizza is not a fan of Trump, but at CNN he points out that the White House should be happy with one key aspect of Thursday's vote in the House. Not a single Republican voted with the Democrats. "While the Senate doesn't take its cues from the lower chamber, all politicians are copycats," writes Cillizza. That no swing-district Republicans buckled will be noticed by senators.
- The White House: Press chief Stephanie Grisham said on Fox News Friday that the White House is prepared for Trump to be impeached in the House. “I wouldn’t say it is a foregone conclusion, I would say it’s what we’re expecting it, yes,” Grisham said, per the Hill. In an op-ed at Bloomberg, Timothy L. O'Brien writes that Trump himself is not yet prepared because he is "unable to move beyond nyah-nyahs and finger-pointing."
- A who's who: Politico has an interactive graphic breaking down the key players in the impeachment inquiry—civil servants, foreigners, Democrats, Republicans, etc.—and which ones have real sway in determining what is happening.
(Trump
may read the rough transcript of his Ukraine call to the American public.)
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