Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings just got a starting time and everyone missed it
For much of July, the nation’s focus was on when and if the House Democrats would move from their current low-key impeachment inquiry to full blown impeachment hearings. Then the nation’s focus shifted when Donald Trump launched into a viciously racist attack on Congressman Elijah Cummings, and then Trump’s ongoing white supremacist rhetoric led to a mass shooting.
Even as the nation has understandably shifted its focus, the impeachment process has continued to play out in earnest. As a sign of just how little public attention the process has been getting, few noticed when Elijah Cummings stated last week that Trump would be impeached if he violated a court order. Even fewer seemed to notice when his committee chair counterparts Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff revealed this week that they’re aiming to start impeachment hearings in the “late fall” of this year.
What’s remarkable is that as Donald Trump does even more damage to the nation, more Americans are hoping he’ll be impeached than ever. Yet because few people are paying any attention right now to what the Democratic House is doing, they’re not aware that the Democrats have gone so far as to publicly lay out their timeframe. What’s more, they made a big impeachment move yesterday that also got very little attention.
Yesterday, House Democrats filed suit to force former White House Counsel Don McGahn to publicly testify about Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice crimes. Why file now, as opposed to last month or next month? There’s a specific way you win court battles, and it rarely has to do with flying off the handle. The bottom line is that House Democrats are gearing up to impeach Trump in the fall, even as Trump seems intent on finishing himself off before that.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report