Political intrigue is high in the US this week – but it’s everyday voters who we should listen to

I’ve spoken to people from across the political spectrum, as well as my contacts in Washington DC, since Nancy Pelosi opened an impeachment investigation against Donald Trump. This is what I learnt

Trump faces an impeachment investigation (EPA)

The last two weeks have been a particularly dramatic, even for a particularly dramatic US administration. Ever since Democratic speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced she was opening an impeachment investigation into Donald Trump, Republicans have been playing an aggressive defensive game. Allegations of corruption against the president have been met with counter-attacks against the integrity of Democrats and claims that Dems want to seize power in 2020 and turn the US “socialist” (a scary word in the US which only the most left-wing of the left-wing contingents will deploy, and even then with caveats).

Running the US Voices desk during this period has meant talking to a wide range of people. I reached out to my contacts in the Democratic Party first, who were almost universally happy to support impeachment proceedings (though they wished the narrative would shift to the new policy proposals of candidates like Elizabeth Warren, which were also released in the past few days). I then spoke with my Republican and conservative contacts, who surprised me by also saying that they backed impeachment or at the very least oversight of the president. And I finished off with a long conversation with one of my writers on the ground in Washington DC: Andrew Feinberg, who remains as politically neutral as possible while reporting from the White House, told me that his contacts close to the president had confided concerns about how Trump would deal with the impeachment proceedings. They were particularly worried that he was refusing proper legal help, instead choosing to rely on “yes-men” whose skills aren’t necessarily up to the job. Andrew wrote a longer column about what’s being whispered in the halls outside the Oval Office here.

It’s impossible to tell how this investigation will end – though we can assume that Republicans, who have control of the Senate, will crush any impeachment bill as soon as it comes down to them to vote. There is an outside chance that Trump might resign before potentially humiliating details come to light, as Nixon did. More likely is that he will continue steamrollering through, blaming “corrupt Democrats”, “liberal elites” and “the fake news media” for publicising problems in government, and concentrating on drumming up anger against his opponents as part of his 2020 “Keep America Great” campaign.