Article snippet: The House’s latest impeachment hearing repeatedly ran off the rails Monday as the parties clashed over both substance and procedure, including the Democrats’ unorthodox move to have staff counsels grill one another on whether MORE’s conduct toward Ukraine is impeachable. Both sides brought sharpened knives to the fight, reflecting the heightened stakes as impeachment enters the homestretch toward the drafting of articles and lawmakers dig in for the final, holiday-season battles in the biggest public relations war of their congressional careers. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sought to amplify their argument that Trump’s pressure campaign on Kyiv marked both an abuse of office and a threat to the future strength of American democracy. “President Trump's persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” said Daniel Goldman, senior Democratic counsel for the House Intelligence Committee, which had led the investigatory phase of the fast-moving impeachment inquiry. But Republicans, crunching the very same evidence, reached a decidedly different conclusion, arguing that Trump’s conduct in Ukraine merely reflected his desire to protect U.S. taxpayers from corruption in Kyiv. The Democrats’ case, said Stephen Castor, the Republican counsel, is based on “hearsay, innuendo and presumptions.” “The Democrats do not have t... Link to the full article to read more