Hey listeners, this impeachment story, it is moving super fast.

So I wanted to let you know that the conversations you're about to hear were recorded Tuesday night

or on 8 p.m. Okay, here we go.

I guess my first question is, did you think would be here having this conversation?

Nancy Pelosi having a press conference announcing an impeachment inquiry?

Um, yes and no.

Dalia Lithueck covers Washington and the courts for Slate.

I last night at about 3 a.m. I was texting with a lot professor friend about whether this was

really happening. We're having one of those pinch me pinch me pinch me um texts and it seemed as

though something profound had shifted in the last 48 hours and I had written something suggesting

that maybe something had shifted. Things began to shift after reports that President Trump

pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden in exchange for military aid.

Over the last couple of days this new allegation from a national intelligence whistleblower

it started a kind of political domino effect. Every few hours another member of congress was

raising their hand and saying impeachment isn't such a bad idea.

And then around 5 o'clock on Tuesday speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference.

I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.

I'm directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella

of impeachment inquiry. Dalia heard that and she thought wow this thing is actually happening.

I say that with the massive caveat that I'm not sure what Nancy Pelosi just announced.

If we were having a de facto congressional impeachment inquiry for the last couple of weeks ever

since that became the litigation posture uh that the judiciary committee was taking then it's

...