“I think that we have pulled back a veil of behavior totally unacceptable to our founders, and that the public will see this with a clearer eye, an unblurred eye,” she said, adding: “Whatever happens, he has been impeached forever. In the Senate, where Democrats are in the minority, Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial — which is expected to conclude with his acquittal on Wednesday — forced vulnerable Republicans in swing states to align themselves with a president who brooks no dissent. But in the House, impeachment was widely viewed as a gamble for moderates who represent districts where Mr. Trump is popular. While Ms. Pelosi gets generally good marks from her rank and file, some centrist members now grumble privately that she made some tactical missteps. They cringed when Ms. Pelosi made a spectacle out of the eventual signing of the articles in January, when she distributed commemorative pens to colleagues.

Source: New York Times February 04, 2020 01:29 UTC