A CNN panel said on Wednesday that there was simply no way that the Republican Party would not have already started up impeachment hearings if a Democratic president had committed the actions outlined in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

While examining House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) continued reluctance to start up impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, CNN host John King argued that it shows there’s a real difference between the parties and how they handle partisan brawls.

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“The Republicans have a history of plowing into these things,” he said. “Democrats are much more cautious. That’s not a criticism, that’s an observation.”

CNN reporter Sara Murray said that she simply could not imagine the Republicans sitting idly by while a Democratic president stood accused of obstructing an investigation into foreign interference into a presidential election.

“Republicans would be lighting their hair on fire if this were a Democratic candidate,” she said. “The party of national security, that’s how Republicans think of themselves… there was some kind of foreign interference in our election!”

Legal analyst Shan Wu, meanwhile, said Democrats need to stop being so “timid” about fears that impeachment will help Trump politically.

“They need to use the evidence they have to begin to talk about it, to get more of it, and to educate the American people rather than just being guided by [what] went wrong in the past,” he said.

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