DEMS/IMPEACHMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “An impeachment investigation to potentially try to remove the president of the United States for high crimes and misdemeanors would seem to be fairly clear-cut. But as the House Judiciary Committee pushed ahead this week with a wide-ranging investigation it said was designed to determine whether to recommend impeaching President Trump, Democrats found themselves tripped up again and again by a seemingly straightforward question: Is what they are doing an impeachment inquiry, or not? The Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, where impeachment cases are typically built, insisted it is, and hastened on Thursday [9-12-19] to add that he sees no more room for debate. But his Republican counterpart is just as adamant that it is not. And the Justice Department is trying to capitalize on the confusion to argue the panel has no right to any secret evidence the department has that’s relevant to its case.”
–Nicholas Fandos, “Impeachment Inquiry or Just Plain Oversight? It Depends on Whom You Ask,” The New York Times online, September 13, 2019