Republicans will try to poison all the evidence collected in the impeachment inquiry: CBS reporter

On Monday, House Democrats moved forward with a formal vote to advance to the next stage of the impeachment inquiry — the first such vote that will be taken, and a direct rebuke of claims from President Donald Trump and his allies that the inquiry is illegitimate.

But as CBS's Steven Portnoy noted on Twitter, Republicans may yet still try to claim that everything in the investigation is illegitimate up to this point, and thus cannot be used for impeachment purposes:

Such an argument would almost certainly carry no weight in the Democratic-controlled House. But it could be an escape hatch for Trump-loyal senators to ignore the evidence against the president and vote to acquit.