This morning, House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress [ AP]. Last week, at an impeachment-focused press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacted strongly to a characterization of the impeachment investigation as flowing from personal animus against the president, with Pelosi making clear that she sees the proceedings as a duty and that hate doesn't factor into it. Karen Tumulty at The Washington Post wrote about the comments in the context of her Catholic faith and how hatred is antithetical to her religious values. Vox's Anna North spoke to Kelly Dittmar about the gender imbalance in polling on approval of the impeachment process, with women supporting impeachment at much higher rates than men. Dittmar cautions that party identification drives impeachment support and women tend to identify as Democrats, so the explanation of this support may have more to do with party than gender, but she also raises the question of whether the trajectory of the Republican Party and the current White House may be impacting whether women identify as Republicans. Meanwhile, The Washington Post notes an interesting bit of historical trivia: U.S. Representative Zoe Lofrgen has played a role in all three impeachment proceedings in the modern era. During the Watergate scandal, Lofrgen was a law student working in the offices of then-Rep. Don Edwards during the impeachment inquiry and even drafted an un-adopted article of impeachment. By the time of the Clinton impeachment, Lofrgen had begun her tenure as a member of Congress, voting against the Clinton impeachment, and in the current crisis, Lofgren relies on her past experience to provide perspective on the Trump impeachment.

 

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