What Went Down At The December Democratic Primary Debate

Steyer was very early to impeachment, as he mentions here, calling for it as early as 2017. Warren was one of the earliest to call for impeachment in this campaign. But all of the candidates got there once House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in the party called for it amid the Ukraine controversy.

As the first question gets at, public opinion hasn’t really shifted during the impeachment process; in our poll with Ipsos, a consistent majority of people have thought Trump has committed an impeachable offense, but the number of people who think Trump should be impeached and removed is less than that — around 49 percent. That means there is a group of people who consistently think that while he has committed an impeachable offense, his fate should be decided in the 2020 election, not by Congress.

I’m watching Warren tonight, and she’s often positioned herself as a candidate focused on fighting corruption, so she pivoted nicely on the impeachment question to the need for a candidate who can “draw the sharpest distinction” against Trump on corruption.