What the columnists said

The Democrats are blowing this, said Alex Shephard in New Republic.com. Hearings on Mueller’s sensational findings should be must-see TV, but Dean’s testimony “was a dud.” Most Americans weren’t born when Nixon resigned; the larger and more immediate problem is that so few of them really know what’s in the Mueller report, including documentation of Trump’s blatant attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation. “Democrats need to show that the president broke the law, not just tell us about it.”

“This is just a game,” said Andrew McCarthy in NationalReview .com. Democrats know “impeachment will go nowhere,” since the Republican-held Senate would vote to acquit. So party leaders are trying to keep their Trump-hating base happy with pointless blustering. “I don’t want to see him impeached,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly told Democrats at a meeting last week. “I want to see him in prison.” Of course, Pelosi knows that’s not going to happen. But she “has to say something to appease them.”

It’s true: Democrats’ dire messaging doesn’t match their actions, said Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg.com. “It’s hard to argue that Trump’s various scandals are truly Watergate-like if Democrats aren’t moving ahead with impeachment proceedings.” Have some patience, said Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post. Pelosi’s “step-by-step approach” is already paying off, with the administration agreeing to hand over some of Mueller’s underlying evidence. Democrats should keep up the pressure on reluctant witnesses, such as former White House counsel Don McGahn and former communications director Hope Hicks—“fact witnesses who can bring to life” the damaging details in Mueller’s report. “Persistence will pay off.”