If you think the election here has been a disorientating exercise in post-truthiness, try following the latest twists in Washington. In the coming days Donald Trump will become the third American president to be impeached. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker, is rushing the vote on articles of impeachment through the House of Representatives, so that the Senate trial of Trump can start before the 2020 election primary season begins.
Pelosi knows that impeachment is probably a losing cause: the Republican–controlled Senate will almost certainly acquit the President. What, then, is the point? The Democrats will say impeachment is a moral necessity, since the President is evidently unworthy of high office. Trump and his allies, for their part, will insist that impeachment has always been the Democrats’ objective, because they know they can’t beat him at the ballot. Each side endlessly obfuscates by accusing the other of obfuscation.
Trump is accused of abusing presidential powers and obstructing the congressional investigation into his conduct.
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