The Atlantic

Democrats Know Trump Won’t Be Removed. They’re Still Amped About Impeachment.

They see the process as good for American democracy—and for their party’s chances in 2020.
Source: Jacquelyn Martin / AP

The first sound that greeted me, rounding the corner outside the hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building, was the eerie echo of Representative Adam Schiff’s voice emanating from the several dozen cellphones blasting live-stream footage of the testimony going on inside.

With the public phase of the impeachment inquiry starting last week and continuing into this one, throngs of people—young and old, mostly Democrats—have waited outside the room every day to try to get a seat to see the hearings in person. Many of them had traveled very long distances to watch the California Democrat and other lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee question a number of witnesses. Why were they there? Almost all of them useddemocracy in action.”

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