Democrats have just released their resolution to formalize the impeachment inquiry and adopt rules which will govern the proceedings. The resolution says the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees to “continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump.”
Democrats continue to use the verbiage “investigation” instead of “impeachment resolution” likely because of pro-Trump districts many of their congressmen come from. Two specific concerns addressed are that it allows for ranking Republicans in the minority on the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees to be able to subpoena witnesses “with the concurrence of committee chairmen in the majority.”
Second, the resolution allows for the Intelligence Committee to conduct “open hearing or hearings” during which Republicans would have equal time to question witnesses. These two details result from demands from Republicans and the White House.
Oddly, Democrats are very defensive on the impeachment rhetoric. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told Fox News just before the resolution was filed that “this is not an impeachment resolution.” Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also insisted “it’s not an impeachment resolution.”
It is speculated that the Democrats are very concerned about public opinion of the term impeachment.
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