Welcome to Words Matter with Katie Barlow and Joe Lockhart.

Welcome to a special edition of Words Matter.

Joe, Tuesday was an historic day in Washington and for the country.

We wanted to try and explain to our listeners what happened, what it means, and what may happen

next.

So let's start with what happened.

What happened is the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is accused of using

the power of his office to extort a foreign government with holding military aid in return

for digging up dirt or manufacturing dirt on a political rival, his main rival in the

2020 presidential election.

That's the story, period, full stop.

And that's an abuse of power.

In my view, it's a crime and it's an impeachable offense.

So on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the step she had been reluctant to take with

all of the other things this president has been accused of since he took office.

The speaker announced that the house would begin formal impeachment proceedings into the

contact of President Donald Trump.

All right, Joe.

This story has moved incredibly fast.

So let's talk about what brought us to this historic moment.

About 10 days ago, we learned that the House Intelligence Committee had become aware of

a whistleblower complaint filed by a member of the intelligence community that had been

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