Poll after poll has shown that Americans are increasingly opposed to the Democrats' partisan impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has repeatedly beaten the impeachment drum, saying the American people do want to "get to the bottom" of what took place in Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But you know the impeachment inquiries aren't going very well when Washington Post Congressional Reporter Rachael Bade is admitting Democrats are having cold feet pursuing this agenda.
“I think what we're starting to see, you know, is when the impeachment inquiry was first announced and [Democrats] started to do these depositions, a lot of people were asking, 'Can Nancy Pelosi peel off any Republicans?'" Bade asked "But I increasingly think the question is becoming does [Nancy Pelosi] lose more Democrats? Because Republicans have really unified behind the president, and although two Democrats voted against the impeachment inquiry rules that they voted on a couple of weeks ago, we are hearing behind-the-scenes there are moderates getting cold feet. And it comes back to these ads and people being afraid for being punished for voting to impeach the president.”
Democrats are "getting cold feet" because this is no longer about an impeachment inquiry. This is about whether or not to draft articles of impeachment, which would then move to the Senate (assuming the vote passed the House). This impeachment vote puts Democrats from red and purple areas between a rock and a hard place. When these Democrats stuck with their party and voted in favor of an impeachment inquiry, they were able to argue this was merely an investigation to "get the facts" surrounding Ukraine, not an actual bill to move forward with impeaching President Trump. Now those same Democrats have to vote and go on-the-record with whether or not they believe Trump's offenses were impeachable. That makes them vulnerable in districts where their constituents voted for Trump.