Democrats Sharply Divided Over Impeachment.
KING: It's a great breakdown in the Washington Post today of the impeachment divide among House Democrats. Think of three distinct groups, the waverers, tore in between party leaders who opposed impeachment, and their fiery constituents who demand it. Put California's Jimmy Gomez in this group, quote, it has to be iron-clad he says. It can't be done willy-nilly just because people want it. Then are skeptics. Those who remember the political backlash of the Clinton days like Democrat Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri. He says, I would like to be able to say I stood for maintaining the unity of the country. Lastly, the diehards who say, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana fits there. "I don't want to be judged in history asleep at the wheel." It's a great story as we watch this debate play out. Every day there are different dynamics. From the reporting, what's your biggest takeaway?</s>BADE: It's very personal. The question of impeachment is very personal for Democrats and it's not really following traditional lines that you would think. Yes, some of the folks on the very far-left are for impeachment, and some of the folks in the swing districts are against it, but there are people on both sides of the Democratic ideology that are going every which way. For example, freshman Representative Katie Hill comes from a Republican district in California, she flipped it. She was telling me that two weeks ago she was gung-ho and ready to come out for impeachment, and all of a sudden there was a court ruling in favor of Democrats and she was in a meeting with Pelosi, Pelosi is arguing and saying, look, we're winning in the courts, don't do this. So she reversed position and now she's getting calls 20-1 for impeachment. That just shows, again, like how torn some of these members are. They don't know what to do. And a lot of them are looking at the future history books saying, you know, what is history going to say about me if I do this or if I don't? And, you know, you talk to members who are talking about their grandkids in this decision, and they're coming to totally opposite conclusions. So, again, it just shows there is no rhyme or reason to a lot of this and it's a very personal decision.</s>KING: It's legitimately hard.</s>BADE: Yes.</s>SHEAR: Yes. And, you know, there's a great book called "Thinking in Time" which talks about the way in which presidents inaccurately often use analogies to guide their decision-making, and they look back in history and they say, well, I should do this because the same thing happen before. And I think this is one of the things that it's a danger for these members as well, right? Is that they only have a couple of things to look at, they really look at the Clinton administration, the Clinton impeachment and say, well, you know, what could happen -- but that's a very limited set of data points. And if you -- you know, really, we're in uncharted territory here and what the political ramifications are on their own election, on the party's future is really uncertain, and they don't have a lot of really good analogies that they can look back in history and say, oh, I know what to do because this is what will happen.</s>BALL: Politicians hate certain situations where they can't tell how things are going to go at the end, right? And it's possible that they don't do it and regret that or do, do it and regret that. But I do think that while there is a very wide spectrum of differing opinions on impeachment, the bulk of the Democratic caucus, you don't hear a lot of hell no. And you don't hear that much do it now or never. There's a big mushy middle that's basically the not yet caucus, and they are open to it, and some of them think it's time already but they are also OK with waiting a little bit longer, whether it's for negotiations with the Justice Department, or for court rulings to come down. They're OK and they're backing Pelosi's strategy for now because they're OK with waiting just a little longer before that decision gets made.</s>KING: Mushy middle has more of a ring than not yet. But let's see