Democrats don’t want to impeach Trump

Democrats are eager for the 2020 election to be defined by something other than the issues.

The impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 is well remembered as a partisan fiasco. Yet the attempted impeachment of President Trump is off to an even more partisan beginning: Republicans in 1998 succeeded in winning over many House Democrats to support an impeachment proceeding. In yesterday’s House vote, Democrats did not convince even a single Republican of the merits of the impeachment inquiry—and two members of Nancy Pelosi’s own party voted against it. Yet Pelosi and Adam Schiff are determined, and with the Democrats holding more than a two-seat majority in the House, they succeeded in pushing the inquiry through.

Such a weak performance in the House—on a vote that Democrats held only to defuse Republican criticisms about the lack of a formal vote in the full chamber—portends the nigh certain failure of impeachment should it get as far as a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.