What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

To Nathaniel’s point — I think one thing Democrats are battling in this is the way news works. In this episode, it may be that the most damaging evidence — the “smoking gun,” perhaps — came at the beginning of the process. And yes, there are things being said now that should be a big deal, but don’t seem new …

This hearing reminds me of the Comey, Cohen and Mueller hearings in some ways. Bad presidential conduct is described in legalistic but still quite explicit language. Except in the case of Cohen, the key speaker(s) is a white man with lots of credentials who can’t be easily cast as a liberal Trump hater. The conduct has been reported and basically confirmed already in the big papers.

I wonder if, for theatrical purposes, Democrats would have been better off not leaking the details from Taylor’s closed-door testimony. This would all be explosive news if we hadn’t heard it before, but I don’t think it landed with quite the same oomph as it would have if it had broken live on national TV.