Today: The United States House of Representatives has impeached President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. My colleague Lisa Chow and I on the story of how a fractious Democratic Party, which started the year divided on impeachment, ultimately united around it.

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

lisa chow

And how far away from Holly?

speaker

35 miles from the home.

lisa chow

O.K. So yeah, we will get there in time. You want to describe what you’re seeing outside the window?

michael barbaro

So we’re driving by a strip mall about 45 minutes outside Detroit. There’s a Best Buy, a Michaels, a PetSmart, a Lowes, Chipotle and a DSW. This is a solid, solid, solid strip mall.

lisa chow

So Michael, why are we driving through the strip malls of Detroit?

michael barbaro

So we are headed to the home of Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin.

archived recording

Elissa Slotkin has a lead of more than 2,000 votes against Republican incumbent Mike Bishop.

michael barbaro

She is a moderate Democrat who won her seat —

archived recording (elissa slotkin)

I won in a district that was a Republican district. So the only way —

michael barbaro

She flipped a red district and turned it blue in 2018. And in doing so, she helped the Democrats win back the House.

archived recording

The blue wave. The blue wave that swept Democrats into power in the House.

michael barbaro

But the moment she gets into office —

archived recording (rashida tlaib)

Because we’re going to go in there, we’re going to impeach the motherfucker. [CHEERS]

michael barbaro

— people like Rashida Tlaib, the congresswoman who represents a district just to the south here that we just drove through, they’re saying that the findings of the Russia inquiry merit impeachment. And Slotkin is not having any of it.

archived recording

Important quote. This is from Congresswoman Slotkin of Michigan. Impeachment is not what people are coming up to me in the grocery store and talking to me about. They want to know —

michael barbaro

She is skeptical of that, she’s opposed to it. It’s not part of her political brand to want to impeach the president. And then all of a sudden, the whistle-blower report comes out, and she reads it, and she’s very troubled. And she and a handful of her moderate swing-district Democratic House colleagues write an op-ed in The Washington Post calling for an impeachment inquiry.

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They write, we have devoted our lives to the service and security of our country. Now we join as a unified group to uphold —

michael barbaro

And their voice carries a tremendous amount of weight, because they are moderates, because they helped win back the House for Democrats. And shortly afterwards, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opens an impeachment inquiry.

archived recording (nancy pelosi)

I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.

michael barbaro

And right away, it’s clear that there are political consequences for Slotkin.

elissa slotkin

I am going to wait for the facts. I’m going to look at them judiciously. I’m going to do what I was trained to do, which is to look at the —

michael barbaro

We went to three town halls in her district and just listened as constituents pelted her with questions about why she was doing this.

crowd

[JEERING]

michael barbaro

Two months go by. The impeachment inquiry unfolds. Hearings happen, a report is filed. And now she has to make a decision — is she going to vote to impeach the president, or is she going to vote not to the impeach the president?

lisa chow

Whoa, we’re going into her driveway.

michael barbaro

We’re doing it. I think it’s O.K. I mean, we’re a little early. What’re you gonna do? We are arriving at Slotkin’s house in the middle of these final hours of deliberation for her on impeachment. She has told her constituents that she’s going to announce her decision on Monday morning. We are talking to her on Sunday night.

lisa chow

How do you feel?

michael barbaro

I feel good. I mean, I feel dehydrated. Did you actually eat your granola bar?

lisa chow

I did not eat my granola bar. Hard to eat and hold a microphone.

michael barbaro

You’re going to regret it when you’re in the middle of this interview and you’re starving.

elissa slotkin

Hi, guys. Come on in.

michael barbaro

Hi.

elissa slotkin

I’m Elissa.

michael barbaro

Congresswoman, so nice to see you.

elissa slotkin

So nice to meet you. Hi.

michael barbaro

Thank you for letting us — Lisa.

elissa slotkin

Come on in, come on in.

michael barbaro

This is a truly a farmhouse.

elissa slotkin

Oh yeah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I think of you guys as audio, and so I’m not doing a very nice job, but this is 1895 farmhouse. My family bought it in the ‘50s. We held off lighting a fire because we didn’t know if the noise would be annoying, but we can definitely light a fire. And this — I should just say, this desk, for whatever it’s worth, is sort of one of the big heirlooms in my family. This was my great-grandfather’s desk. And if you see on the plate here —

michael barbaro

It is kind of a resolute desk.

elissa slotkin

Yes. So it was used by Lindley Garrison, secretary of war, 1913 to 1916.

michael barbaro

During the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

elissa slotkin

Yeah.

michael barbaro

Geez.

elissa slotkin

So that was a gift to my great-grandfather, Sam Slotkin. And it’s been passed down.

michael barbaro

Is this where you go to make big decisions?

elissa slotkin

This is where I make my big decisions.

michael barbaro

Is this that — this three-ring binder looks like it’s the House Intelligence report?

elissa slotkin

Yes. This is — well, it’s a lot, I guess, more than it. It is — let’s see. My team has diligently tabbed it out for me. So this is the impeachment documents that came down, I guess, what now, three weeks ago —

michael barbaro

From the Judiciary Committee.

elissa slotkin

Yes, from the Judiciary Committee. This is the HPSCI report, the House Intelligence report.

michael barbaro

May I see this?

elissa slotkin

You’re welcome to.

michael barbaro

Clinton articles of impeachment. Nixon articles of impeachment. And I see you’ve done a bunch of underlining.

elissa slotkin

Yeah. For me, this is, frankly, a very standard way that I look at things, which just comes from my training as a C.I.A. officer, which is sequester yourself away, get all the original base documents. And then you do some historical research and then make an objective decision not based on what you see in the news or what someone’s telling you.

michael barbaro

Thanks for letting us interrupt it.

elissa slotkin

Where would you guys like to set up? Would you like to be —

michael barbaro

Where would you like us to set up?

elissa slotkin

Take the dining room.

michael barbaro

All right, we’ll go set ourselves up.

elissa slotkin

Sure.

lisa chow

O.K., check, check, check, check.

michael barbaro

How am I sounding? O.K. So, Congresswoman, thank you for letting us into your home —

elissa slotkin

Of course.

michael barbaro

— during a really important moment for you.

elissa slotkin

Yeah.

michael barbaro

The last time we talked to you, you had just made a decision to support an impeachment inquiry, which ended up being a very consequential decision.

elissa slotkin

Yeah.

michael barbaro

Tell me what the last couple of months have been like for you as that inquiry has unfolded. What’s that experience been like?

elissa slotkin

Well, I would say it’s probably been some of the most intense months I’ve had as a working professional, that’s for sure. The principal reason why I decided to come out back in September in support of an inquiry, after many, many months of not supporting impeachment or an inquiry, was this very basic idea that the president of the United States reached out to a foreign party and solicited help in influencing an American election. And confirming or denying that very basic idea was pretty important to me in this process.

michael barbaro

That fact pattern.

elissa slotkin

That fact pattern. And you know, I was in national security for a long time. We are in the business of pressuring governments to do things that we want, right? That happens all the time. And anyone who gets to a senior-enough level has been in that position. The difference here was that the president was doing it for his own personal political gain, not for the national security interests of the United States. So for me, the central idea was whether the president asked for foreigners to get involved in the American political process.

michael barbaro

So did the inquiry and did the hearings establish that?

elissa slotkin

Well, that’s what I’ve been trying to parse through. What became clearer and clearer through what I read and what the reporting produced was that you have a lot of people who were aware that, for instance, security assistance was held up in exchange for something. And we have Ambassador Sondland saying very directly that it was held up because they were waiting for the Ukrainians to live up to their end of the bargain.

michael barbaro

To conduct these investigations on —

elissa slotkin

Yes, to announce investigations. That’s the hardest thing for me about my peers who may decide not to vote on these articles, is that do they accept that it’s O.K. to invite foreign help into the American political process?

michael barbaro

I think I just watched Lindsey Graham say that he’s O.K. with it in an interview.

elissa slotkin

Well, I’m sorry, and I think that history will show them to be misguided. And maybe it’s because I was a C.I.A. officer, but I am comfortable making hard decisions that aren’t popular, because I know that they’re the right thing for the security of the country. I was asked to do that over and over and over again in my prior life. And that’s the same approach I take to these decisions.

michael barbaro

I hear you hinting that a hard decision that you’re capable of making may be heading in one direction.

elissa slotkin

Well, listen, I mean, no offense, but I’m not going to tell The New York Times before I tell my own constituents. It’s why we’re having a big town hall tomorrow. My hope and my responsibility is to be transparent with the constituents of the Eighth District, to be available to listen to their current concerns and answer them, and to be honest with them.

michael barbaro

So understanding that you’re not going to be disclosing your intentions just now at this table in your house, I want to talk about your constituents for just a moment.

elissa slotkin

Sure.

michael barbaro

Based on my understanding of your district, which voted for Trump by a healthy margin, and according to you, does not seem to support impeachment as a whole, you could find yourself very much at odds with your own constituents.

elissa slotkin

I mean —

michael barbaro

Are you comfortable with that?

elissa slotkin

This is what it means to be an elected leader. You have to make tough calls. And in a district like this, I’m never going to make everyone happy. If I lose my seat because I stood up for my principles, that’s O.K. I, of course, want to be re-elected, and I want to maintain the House majority. I think it’s an important check and balance. But I’m not going to compromise my principles just to keep that job. I’m just not. And I hope that people want that kind of an elected representative.

michael barbaro

I do have to ask you the kind of political version of this question, which is mathematically, your vote isn’t required to impeach the president. And so there’re kind of two ways to look at this. On the one hand, if you vote yes, that would be very politically risky. The other way to look at this is that if you vote no, that’s its own set of risks, because as a moderate, you would be sending a message that the people in the middle who started all this, who said there should be an inquiry, don’t think there’s enough there to actually impeach. And that would be a very complicated message to send in 2020 when the president’s running for re-election. It’s essentially that impeachment was a project of the far left. And so there’s basically a ton of risk no matter what you do, and I wonder how you weigh those risks.

elissa slotkin

Well, I mean, listen, voting on articles of impeachment is right up there with Congress’s role in declaring war. I mean, it’s got to be one of the top two things that a member of Congress will ever vote on in their career — most important things. So when you have a vote like that, it’s beyond that political calculus. I think it should be. It certainly is for me. And I’ve certainly had people propose to me, you know, just vote no, save your seat.

michael barbaro

Your vote isn’t needed, anyway.

elissa slotkin

I’ve had people say that to me.

michael barbaro

And what do you say?

elissa slotkin

I have to look at myself in the mirror. Like, I have to come away from this experience with a sense that I haven’t done what so many people here in Michigan think of elected officials. I cannot just become that cynical political person who just orients their major decisions around what would save their seat. I just —

michael barbaro

Or even their party.

elissa slotkin

You know, we have the president admitting that he reached out to a foreigner to ask for help in an American political election. If you think about that outside the normal insanity that we have right now on TV and all the events that are happening, if you think about that, which I’ve been trying to do today here quietly at my farm, that is — that is wrong. And I think that sending a signal in the most clear terms we can is important enough even to risk the majority.

michael barbaro

So it’s 7:30 on Sunday night and you’re planning to make an announcement tomorrow morning in front of your constituents. How are you doing inside? How are you feeling?

elissa slotkin

I actually feel pretty clear. I’ve done the work. I’ve kept an open mind, and I’ve sat with the documents, I’ve sat with the transcripts, and I’ve made my best assessment. So I’m going to try and be as present and available as I can. I trust my voters, I do. And I think —

michael barbaro

Trust them to do what?

elissa slotkin