Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Republicans Show No Sign of Taking Impeachment Seriously

House Democrats are leading the process, but the other side has an even more important role to play.

December 13, 2019 at 5:43 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Trying times.
Photographer: Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

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The impeachment vote in the Judiciary Committee on Friday morning went as expected — along party lines — but the final procedural spat was instructive.

The vote was expected Thursday evening, but Chair Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, abruptly recessed the committee at 11 p.m. Eastern time following hours of debate about Republican amendments that had no chance of passing. That angered Republicans who hadn’t been informed of the change in schedule, but it won’t move the impeachment debate one way or another.