House Democrat: Impeachment inquiry ‘likely to stay narrowly focused’

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Sunday that the House’s impeachment inquiry would likely be “narrowly focused” on allegations President Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine to force an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I think it’s likely to stay narrowly focused on what is a threat to our national security,” Himes said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

{mosads}Himes added that while “there’s any number of issues you could take up with this president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “understands that Americans feel in their bones, in their hearts a challenge to our national security, this kind of corruption, they understand that a lot better than they understand obstruction of justice or refusal to abide by congressional subpoenas.”

Himes said that amid reports of a second whistleblower complaint regarding Trump’s July call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, this one reportedly from a source with firsthand knowledge of the call, “we’re sitting here watching the information flow out of the White House.”

“What’s happening is people around the president, professionals who are in the Oval Office, who are in the situation room are watching what is happening and are finally saying ‘my God, this cannot happen anymore,’ and they are coming forward,” Himes told CBS’ Margaret Brennan. “The president’s real problem is that his behavior has finally gotten to a place where people are saying ‘enough.’”