Indeed, Nadler went on to explain why Democrats have not yet moved to impeach the president. Essentially, he said, the party doesn't yet have its ducks in a row. There is preparatory work -- evidence gathering and creating a communications strategy -- to be done before going forward.

"We have to -- we have to do the investigations and get all this," Nadler said. "We do not now have the evidence all sorted out and everything ... to do an impeachment. Before you impeach somebody, you have to persuade the American public that it ought to happen. You have to persuade enough of the -- of the opposition party voters, Trump voters, that you're not just trying to ... reverse the results of the last election."

Nadler's talk with ABC was the clearest indication yet that Democrats have decided to impeach Trump and are now simply doing the legwork involved in making that happen. And that means the debate among House Democrats will be a tactical one -- what is the best time and way to go forward -- rather than a more fundamental discussion of whether the president should be impeached.