The pre-impeachment, public Trump trial

The state of play: They plan to pursue a slow-bleed strategy with lengthy public hearings and scores of witnesses to methodically pick apart Trump’s finances and presidency…

Speaker Pelosi and other top Democrats don’t want to take up impeachment if it’s going to go nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate.

So with huge energy in the party pushing for impeachment, leaders are using the congressional investigation to buy time.

A source close to the House leadership told me: “Many in leadership believe impeachment could help Trump get re-elected,” and instead will try to “pivot the anger to defeating him on the campaign side next year. … The last thing they want to do is help Trump like it eventually helped Clinton.”