The official impeachment debate on the floor of the House of Representatives began with a solemn call from Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
‘We gather today under the dome of this temple of democracy to exercise one of the most solemn powers that this body can take: The impeachment of the President of the United States’.
The debate, however, was anything but. The proceedings were at once lively, ridiculous, childlike, and downright sad. The all-day spectacle was less a debate than a marathon screaming match, where grown men and women in ties, black shoes, and pantsuits were making the same points Americans have heard over and over again for the last ten weeks. To Democrats, President Trump is a criminal, a traitor, and a danger to democracy itself—someone who would just as well use the US Constitution as toilet paper. To Republicans, Trump is a victim of a political hatchet job, an honest, hard-working American who did nothing wrong but is nonetheless being persecuted worse than Jesus Christ himself.
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