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Trump’s impeachment hearings are being frustrated by extreme partisanship – he could survive this

Editorial: Opening statements from Democratic chair Adam Schiff and Republican Devin Nunes have already demonstrated that party lines will primarily guide these proceedings

Wednesday 13 November 2019 21:15 GMT
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Trump overhead asking about 'investigations' with Sondland in Ukraine restaurant

Even the great American historian Arthur Schlesinger once said: “The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.”

That is indeed so and, whatever path the present impeachment of Donald Trump takes, it will be a political punishment for the president.

Even from the early evidence, it is apparent that Mr Trump applied the “transactional” approach of the businessman to his official dealings, as the chief executive of the United States, with the president of Ukraine. Old habits die hard, it may be said, but in such high office it has proved a bad habit as well.

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