Throwing caution to the wind, the Democratic Party announced today that they would be moving forward with their “formal impeachment inquiry”…and quickly.
After two weeks of public hearings within the House Intelligence Committee, the nation really hasn’t moved much. New polling shows that the split among voters who prefer impeachment and those who do not is just about dead even, and almost entirely down party lines. The circus that we endured over the course of the last several days hasn’t really moved the needle there.
But still the Democrats want more.
The House Judiciary Committee is set to take over the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, Democrats announced Tuesday, scheduling a hearing for next week as they push closer to a possible vote on actual charges of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The Judiciary panel scheduled the hearing as the separate Intelligence Committee released two last transcripts from its depositions, including from a White House budget official who detailed concerns among colleagues as Trump ordered them, through intermediaries, to put a hold on military aid to Ukraine.
Trump ordered the hold as he was pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrats — the issue at the heart of the impeachment probe. Multiple government witnesses testified in impeachment hearings held by the Intelligence panel this month that Trump directed his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to take the lead on Ukraine policy and that Giuliani pushed an “irregular” diplomatic channel.
The swiftness with which this maneuver was announced belies the weakness of the Democrats, however, indicating that they are panicking about the December 9th release of the DOJ Investigator General’s report regarding the 2016 election.
The IG report is believed to be incredibly damning for the Democratic Party, and could sway public opinion of the President a great deal.
