This week saw a flurry of consequential activity on Capitol Hill: a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, an approximate transcript of a controversial call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and a whistle-blower complaint that accuses Trump and associates of serious misdeeds. But House Democrats argue that they’re only just getting started.
In the party’s first hearing since formally upping the ante against Trump, acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee Thursday was filled with more singular flare-gun shots than any real fireworks, besides the usual hyper-partisan sparks that erupted from all sides.
Still, even as Democrats recognize the whistleblower report, which went live ahead of the high profile hearing, may not contain the smoking gun many in the party have longed for, many say it provides them the coordinates to reach their ultimate goal: holding Trump ultimately accountable for his multitude of alleged misdeeds.
“There’s a road map,” representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) told WIRED upon leaving the hearing. “You know, the reference to the many people who were witness to the call, witness to the things that the president said—there was no investigation that was done here.”
Welch and the vast majority of House Democrats—including their party leaders, who up until this week have resisted calls to “impeach the motherfucker,” in the words of representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan)—now see their job as filling in the gaps that the administration has failed to provide.
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