The public impeachment hearings are a Rorschach test for America. Those with views based in reality will see a guilty president. The apologists who continue to enable the president will be like, “What ink blot? I don’t see any ink blot.” And so it was during the opening day of public impeachment hearings. William Taylor added more damning details of a clear quid pro quo in which Trump and his Giuliani-led shadow state department demanded the Ukrainian president announce an investigation into the Bidens in order to get the promised American military aid. On that matter, no refutations were offered, though there were some efforts to impeach the character of William Taylor (a long shot that failed), repeated attempts to smear Joe and Hunter Biden (which was the exact goal of the quid pro quo in the first place), and endless implications that the fact that the money was ultimately released without any Biden-related investigations means that there was no crime at all (marking the first time that getting caught in the act has been used as a defense). At one point, the GOP counsel asked William Taylor: “This irregular channel of diplomacy is not as outlandish as it could be, is that correct?” Taylor laughed, and confirmed, “It’s not as outlandish as it could be.” Don’t worry. With this administration and its enablers, we’ll get there.

+ Here’s the latest on day one in the impeach pit from WaPo and the NYT.