What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

Pelosi’s argument for much of the year that impeachment had to be bipartisan was not great strategy in one sense — it basically gave Nunes the talking point he used just now, that impeachment is inappropriate because it is not bipartisan.

Schiff began his opening remarks by framing the impeachment inquiry in the context of American foreign policy. We know from polling, though, that Americans aren’t prioritizing foreign policy and even national security at the moment. They care much more about what Gallup calls “poor leadership.” It will be interesting to watch the balance in these hearings between framing this as poor leadership/corruption versus a foreign policy/national security issue.

“Must we simply get over it? … If this is not impeachable conduct, what is?” says Schiff. It goes to the point that Schiff was one of the Democrats — along with Pelosi — who had been weary of impeachment for much of the year. The Ukraine situation basically forced some of the Democrats to move toward impeachment.