Ukraine scandal could be the last straw that dooms Trump to impeachment: Columnist

On Monday, two new Democratic representatives came out in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump: Reps. Dean Phillips and Angie Craig. Both of them are moderates who represent districts in suburban Minnesota — and both of them are freshman lawmakers who unseated Republican incumbents in the 2018 election.

All of this, wrote Jonathan Allen for ABC News, is a sign that articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump could now be a matter of time, in light of the scandal surrounding Trump's alleged efforts to strong-arm the Ukrainian government into digging up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.

"House Democrats have been pulling together a wide-ranging case to impeach President Donald Trump on a series of alleged past and ongoing crimes against the country — a set of charges that goes far beyond the Mueller report — and all signs point to a possible public inflection point later this week, when acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies before the House Intelligence Committee," wrote Allen. "'The dam could break on Thursday,' said one senior House Democratic aide, whose boss has not endorsed impeachment."

For a long time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has resisted moving forward with a formal impeachment hearing, in part because of hard math — more than half of Democratic lawmakers support impeachment, but no Republicans have even acknowledged the president has committed impeachable offenses, except Rep. Justin Amash, who is now an independent. Moreover, the House majority was secured by Democrats like Craig and Phillips, who flipped traditionally Republican districts where it is unclear voters want impeachment, and where many lawmakers explicitly promised they would vote against it. There simply aren't enough votes.

Pelosi may no longer have that justification in short time, however. As more Democrats join the call for impeachment, the numbers may shift quickly.

"For House Democrats, the question of impeachment has suddenly become more pressing," concluded Allen. "Said an aide to a lawmaker who has long favored moving forward on impeachment: 'If this isn’t the moment, then what is?'"