The Daily: The Decision to Impeach

December 20, 2019

By Michael Barbaro

Lisa Chow, an editor for “The Daily,” left, with Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan at her home the night before she announced her impeachment vote.Michael Barbaro/The New York Times

How do you cover a dramatic, momentous news event whose outcome is well-known beforehand?

That was our challenge in planning an episode about Wednesday’s impeachment vote in the House of Representatives.

We began discussing options weeks ago. We knew what we didn’t want to do: Make the vote itself the entire story. We wanted to tell the story behind that vote.

We often think the best way to understand a big story is through a single character. We had met Representative Elissa Slotkin, a moderate swing-district Democrat who was skeptical of impeachment, on an earlier episode of our series “The Freshmen.” We attended three of her contentious town hall meetings just after she announced her support for opening an impeachment inquiry.

What if we followed up with her now that the inquiry had evolved into a full-blown impeachment vote? Slotkin’s staff was open to it. They told us she had not yet made up her mind on which way to vote and was spending the next few days in her district deliberating.

I flew with Lisa Chow, an editor for “The Daily,” to Michigan last Sunday to meet Slotkin at her home. A light snow had fallen, and she and her husband had prepared dinner for us. (My favorite dish: the chicken pot pie.) She toured us around her house and showed us the desk where she was poring over House impeachment reports. This was the spot where she would make the most important decision of her political life.

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A historic desk, gifted to Slotkin’s great-grandfather, for a historic decision.Michael Barbaro/The New York Times

For the next 45 minutes, at her antique dining room table, she told us what she was thinking. Despite the president’s popularity in her district, she seemed to be leaning toward impeachment. Her biggest hope, she told us, was that her constituents would hear her out and let her explain her decision.

The next morning, I went back to New York, but Lisa stayed in Slotkin’s district, waiting for the congresswoman to declare her impeachment vote at a town hall. It was a loud, raucous scene, and in the end, Slotkin’s constituents just barely let her explain herself. She was voting to impeach, and many of them objected.

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The scene at the town hall in Rochester, Mich., where Representative Slotkin told her constituents she would be voting yes on impeachment.Lisa Chow/The New York Times

Back in New York, we began wondering if we should follow up with another House Democrat, whom we had profiled in January for our “Freshmen” series, Representative Rashida Tlaib. Her district is nearby Slotkin’s, but Tlaib is cut from a different political cloth: a liberal progressive in an anti-Trump district who had called for Trump’s impeachment from the moment she was elected, long before the Ukraine controversy erupted.

So on Wednesday, Lisa and I made our second trip, this time to Washington. Tlaib had a narrow window, just 15 minutes, before she went onto the House floor to deliver a speech. Inside the ornate Rayburn Room of the Capitol, she told us why she was voting for impeachment, and why she was grateful so many of her colleagues had come around to her thinking.

Lisa setting up for an interview with Representative Rashida Tlaib in the Rayburn Room. Michael’s self-portraiture in the mirror.Michael Barbaro/The New York Times

In the end, both Tlaib and Slotkin faced the same overriding question: Why vote to impeach Trump if doing so would imperil Democrats in the House — and in Slotkin’s case, her ability to win re-election — and probably end in his acquittal in the Senate?

Both gave a variation of the same answer: because the constitutional principles at stake mattered more than their jobs and their power.

Talk to Michael on Twitter: @mikiebarb.

Some familiar voices from 2019

For the next two weeks, we’ll be revisiting some of our favorite stories of the year and checking back in with the people at the center of them.

You’ll hear from Daniel Evans, the husband of the late evangelical writer Rachel Held Evans, as he reflects on her legacy in his first holiday season without her. You’ll hear from Wesley Morris on how his feelings about Michael Jackson have changed since watching the documentary “Leaving Neverland” earlier this year. And you’ll hear from two of the youngest guests we’ve ever had on “The Daily” — 9-year-old Ella, who talks to a listener inspired by her story of facing her fears, and 8-year-old Leo, who, last we heard, was obsessed with the impeachment inquiry.

Look out for these episodes at nytimes.com/thedaily or wherever you get your podcasts.

Oh, the places you’ll here’s-what-else-you-need-to-know

For many of us, the end of a decade is a time to reflect, to revel, to spend time with loved ones. For Andy Mills, one of the founding producers of “The Daily,” it’s a time to obsessively document the evolution of the way Michael Barbaro says, “Here’s what else you need to know today.”

Andy helpfully created an audio exhibit with side-by-side comparisons of the line from February 2017 (when the show first started), December 2017, February 2018 and December 2019. Listen to the evolution here.

What will “to-know-today” sound like next? Will 2020 be the year it reaches its final form? None of us can really say, but we at “The Daily” are grateful to you for coming with us on this journey.

On ‘The Daily’ this week

Monday: Thomas Gibbons-Neff, who served a tour in Afghanistan, on the release of explosive new documents about the war: “You just read these documents. And it just always ends with me asking where my friends are.”

Tuesday: “They are mourning just the passing of a way of life.” Patrick Kingsley tells us the story of Shirebrook, an English mining town whose political about-face helps explain Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s landslide victory.

Wednesday: President Trump issued an executive order aimed at fighting anti-Semitism on college campuses. Some Jewish Americans worry it’ll do the opposite. Max Fisher explains.

Thursday: “If I lose my seat because I stood up for my principles, that’s O.K.” We talked to two House freshmen just before the impeachment vote.

Friday: In part 4 of our series on pivotal moments in the lives of the top presidential candidates, a look at the Democratic front-runner: Joe Biden.