Why Didn’t Republicans Try Harder to Defend Trump?
Their case on the House floor was illogical, irrelevant and based on flat-out lies.
A day (and night) to remember.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The House of Representatives has just impeached a United States president for the third time. I’ve talked about the politics of it before and will do so again as the action moves to the Senate. For now, I’ll stick with the substance of what happened on Wednesday.
Democrats brought a straightforward case to the House floor: In a phone call, President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to do things for Trump’s private political benefit, an appeal that was part of a longer-term strategy that included publicly asking Ukraine and China to investigate his political rival. The case rested on the testimony of a number of witnesses and various documents and other evidence. The president’s plan was upended only when it was discovered.