The Impeachment Hearing Is About to Start. Trump Is Already Short-Circuiting.

A historic morning indeed!

Douglas Christian/ZUMA

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As the first day of televised impeachment hearings prepare to go live, let’s pause to take the temperature inside the White House, where President Donald Trump appears to be short-circuiting: 

After kicking off the morning with those nods to Fox News, Trump then opted to keep things short, sticking closely to his catchphrase defenses against the biggest threat to his presidency.

To translate: the “READ THE TRANSCRIPT” demand, as we previously explained, has served as Trump’s go-to rejoinder to the investigation; “NEVER TRUMPERS” is his attempt to falsely paint the witnesses in the impeachment inquiry as politically biased.

All that followed a late night of retweeting and quoting in advance of what’s all but certain to be a historic day, as House Democrats attempt to convince the country that Trump abused his power to coerce foreign intervention in the 2020 election. The president appears to have left his morning wide open for the opening remarks, so prepare yourself for some more meltdowns.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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