Democrats need 218 votes to impeach the president. Politico reports that a short time ago they reached that threshold:

A majority of the House now backs impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, a significant milestone as Democrats move rapidly on an impeachment inquiry.

As of Wednesday night, 218 lawmakers have indicated support for impeachment proceedings — 217 Democrats and independent Rep. Justin Amash.

However, NBC News tempers that a bit by noting that it is not at all clear all 218 people have agreed to exactly the same thing:

That nearly all House Democrats support some kind of impeachment action represents a significant development in the chamber’s push forward with official impeachment proceedings.

But that doesn’t mean they will all vote to impeach the president.

Some House Democrats, as well as Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich., have asked for an impeachment inquiry to examine any evidence of wrongdoing, while others have favored the House Judiciary Committee investigation. Still others have called for drafting articles of impeachment against Trump. The different terms the lawmakers are using to discuss the issue make it unclear how they will vote if articles of impeachment were to go before the full House. The Democratic holdouts, meanwhile, include several of those in competitive districts — some who flipped seats last year.

CNN had a running impeachment tally on television throughout the day.

CNN's count of House Dems calling for an impeachment inquiry just topped 200 pic.twitter.com/HS2sTupCz3

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 25, 2019

MSNBC actually treated it as breaking news earlier when the number reached 217:

#BREAKING: We are now at 217 members of Congress now support impeachment.

🚨 Only 1 vote away from the 218 needed 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Y22vdtgK03

— Matt Rogers 🗳 (@Politidope) September 25, 2019

This is moving fast but it appears that, for now, Democrats will continue moving forward with the investigation that is already taking place. In other words, don’t expect articles of impeachment to be drawn up this week. The whistleblower complaint that prompted all of this activity has only just been turned over to Congress. Sen. Ben Sasse says the complaint is “troubling” but is telling everybody, including the media, to settle down and settle in for a deliberative process:

SASSE also says “The administration ought not be attacking the whistleblower as some talking points suggest they plan to do.”

Here’s more of @BenSasse’s full Response: pic.twitter.com/TXtGueaByu

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 25, 2019