Impeachment scorecard: A House, and nation, still divided
The first phase of the Democratic-led House impeachment inquiry has produced a vivid and fact-studded picture of an American government and diplomatic corps struggling to deal with the whims of a mercurial president while trying to prevent policy toward Ukraine, an ally at war with Russia, from being shoved completely off the rails.
Hours of testimony have indicated that President Donald Trump, at the least, was willing to withhold things Ukrainian leaders wanted until they announced investigations that touched on his political opponents and a discredited theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
This has pushed many Democrats in the House ever closer to voting for President Trump’s impeachment. Such a vote, if not the outcome, now seems foreordained.
Hours of testimony also left holes in the picture. No witness linked the president directly to the most serious impeachment charge:
Diplomatic irregularitiesThe national interestParty lines
