Host on the phone with us is jennifer haberkorn, who covers congress for the los angeles times. What did democrats decide to do regarding impeachment . Jennifer Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment investigation today, and it looks like the vast majority of democrats are on board with it. After months of debate, will they or will they not do impeachment, democrats seem fairly united that they want to move forward with this today. Host your tweet fairly captures the day. You tweeted this, a wild day as Speaker Pelosi announced her support for an impeachment inquiry. Formally, this changes nothing. Congress will not take a vote and will not get any new authority, but politically, it changes a lot. If they will not take a vote, how does this inquiry proceed . Jennifer well, you know, that is an interesting thing from today. A lot of democrats said this was important, that that pelosi name an investigation, and one issue standing in the way of an impeachment inquiry was whether pelosi would allow it on the floor. Six committees were doing investigations, some called impeachment investigations, some not, but, you know, that was really only going to move forward if the majority of democrats supported it and if nancy pelosi, the speaker, said that it was going to move forward, as well. Host if there was any indication, what was that final straw that made it happen today that the democrats hit Critical Mass to move this officially towards an impeachment inquiry . Jennifer there were about two democrats who came out in the last 24 hours and said they support impeachment inquiry, and that is because the seriousness of the accusations surrounding the president s dealings with the president of ukraine, and before, the focus of impeachment was about the russia investigation and bob muellers report. Now, it is about the president s interactions with ukraine and whether the president withheld aid to ukraine in an effort to get the president of the country to investigate one of his potential 2020 rivals, the Vice President. Democrats have said to me that this is a new category of allegation, and if true, and the report so far suggests it could be, this would be an Impeachable Offense that they feel comfortable moving forward with. Host in your los angeles times, piece, latimes. Com, that they opened formal impeachment inquiry against president trump, the transcript of his phone conversation with the ukrainian president. There is also a word that the Administration May allow the whistleblower to speak to congressional committees. Why did the democrats not wait for these things to be in place before moving ahead with an official impeachment inquiry . Jennifer i think democrats might say that the inquiry may have prompted the white house to respond and to put this out there. I think over the next couple of days, this story is going to move very quickly. We have seen it move quickly in even just the last two days, but the senate voted on tuesday that it wanted to see that transcript, and it is really underscoring the import around what is in there. Host so what are you thinking is next in terms of testimony or senate, or i should say, Committee Hearings that we may see in the coming weeks on capitol hill . Jennifer well, i think the most important will be thursday in the house intelligence committee, where the director of National Intelligence is going to testify or i should say is scheduled to testify, and that would be very important, and probably the next steps, which will probably tell us how the interactions between congress and this administration are going to go. Host and i will remind our cspan viewers that we will have live coverage of that thursday 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Jennifer haberkorn is a reporter for the los angeles times, at latimes. Com. You can follow her on twitter jenhab. Jennifer thank you for having me. Announcer watch cspan3 live at 9 00 a. M. Eastern as Joseph Mcguire testifies before the house select intelligence committee, chaired by congressman adam schiff, democrat from california, and congressman devin nunes, the republican Ranking Member from california, on the whistleblower complaint involving president trump. Live coverage thursday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Announcer house Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially announced that democrats are launching an impeachment inquiry into president trump. It stems from reports the president pressured the ukrainian president to investigate democratic former Vice President joe biden and his son. Speaker pelosi good afternoon. Last tuesday, we observed the anniversary of the adoption of the constitution on september 17. Sadly, on that day, the Intelligence CommunityInspector General formally notified the congress that the administration was forbidding him from turning