The intense acrimony between Republicans and Democrats was on full display during the impeachment debate and vote in the House of Representatives Wednesday. During more than six hours of impassioned discourse on two articles concerning abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, lawmakers considered the same set of facts in wildly different ways. Most of them spent most of the day and into the night, talking over each other’s heads, and pining for the sound bite that would merit mention on cable news. For his part, President Donald Trump flew to Battle Creek Michigan for an invective-filled diatribe about Democrats, living and deceased.
Now, the question is, when will the Senate embark on the next part of this impeachment journey? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that she will wait to send the two impeachment articles the House approved to the Senate until she is assured that a trial in the upper chamber will be fair. That could take a while, given Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s disdainful characterization of the House Impeachment efforts.
And in the middle of all of this impeachment drama, Democrats hoping to succeed Mr. Trump faced-off in Los Angeles, in the penultimate debate before the Iowa caucuses.
Joining me with analysis of the week’s historic - and sometimes hysterical - events is Domenico Montanaro, the Senior Political Editor and Washington Correspondent at NPR.
Read Domenico's reporting on the highly partisan nature of this Trump impeachment process, and his 6 takeaways from the 6th Democratic presidential candidates' debate.