Americans' competing political realities are colliding fantastically on Capitol Hill this week in a public punishment, an ill-fated impeachment effort and the dissection of another special counsel's report.
The punishment. First will come the rare step of House Republicans voting to publicly censure Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, and refer him for an Ethics Committee investigation.
Schiff's alleged crime?
"He put people through four years of an endless impeachment hoax that he knew from the beginning was a lie," Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Colorado Republican and a stalwart of the party's extreme right wing, said on the House floor Wednesday.
The impeachment effort. It is possible that honest people can disagree over whether the two impeachments of former President Donald Trump were legitimate, but even many Republicans are having trouble with the hop from censuring Schiff in part for his role in impeaching Trump to the Boebert-led effort to impeach President Joe Biden.
Party leaders oppose this impeachment resolution
"What majority do we want to be," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy asked his fellow Republicans during a closed-door meeting, a source told CNN's Capitol Hill team. "Give it right back in two years or hold it for a decade and make real change?"
McCarthy was trying to beat back Boebert's impeachment effort for now and acknowledged the difficulty of explaining the mixed messages to voters.
It's not that he's opposed to impeaching Biden. But McCarthy wants a more measured process to play out.
"I think to prematurely bring something up like that, to have no background in it, it undercuts what we're doing" at the committee level, McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday.
Impeachment season
McCarthy will likely have to make his speech to GOP colleagues more than once.
According to CNN's report, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has plans to, like Boebert, force impeachment resolution votes on numerous Biden administration officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and US Attorney Matthew Graves.
Privileged resolutions
Both the censure and the impeachment resolutions are being offered by individual lawmakers. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is spearheading the censure drive, and Boebert is forcing the impeachment resolution vote.
Luna's censure effort was reborn after an earlier version was defeated when 20 Republicans opposed it. They felt the $16 million fine it sought to impose on Schiff was either unconstitutional, unfair or both. The latest version drops the fine, and Luna says it has the votes to pass.
What happens when a member of Congress is censured?
It's rare. There have only been two since the 1980s, and the most recent was for Rep. Paul Gosar, who posted a manipulated video of himself attacking both Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Biden.
Other censures have been for improper use of campaign funds or sexual misconduct. The censured member stands in the well of the House while his or her censure resolution is read aloud.
Revisiting the Russia investigation again and again
Schiff, although facing censure, resumed his role as public prosecutor Wednesday, recounting the many ways in which Russians were shown to have tried to hurt Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
He did so while grilling John Durham, the special counsel appointed during the Trump administration, who testified publicly about his 300-page report into the origins of the Russia investigation that dogged much of Trump's term in office.
While Durham's report did not paint the FBI or Department of Justice in a favorable light, neither did it find overt political influence, undercutting Trump's claim that it was all part of a hoax.
The public hearing was predictably partisan, but CNN's Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen note that after a closed-door appearance by Durham before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, both Republican and Democratic leaders were talking about the need for some kind of reforms at the FBI.
Durham did not fit easily into any partisan box
Durham defended the reputations of both former Attorney General Bill Barr and former special counsel Robert Mueller, who were at odds over Mueller's report. Barr has also turned into a major critic of Trump.
Cohen and Cohen write:
Despite repeated claims from Trump and Republicans that the Biden administration has "weaponized" the Justice Department, Durham said there wasn't any political interference with his work. He testified that Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, didn't block any of his moves, didn't reach out to discuss the probe, and didn't meddle with the investigation.
That stands in contrast with what Trump has promised to do if he wins back the White House next year: He said he'll appoint a special prosecutor to "go after" Joe Biden and his family, directing an investigation against an opponent in a way that shatters longstanding norms, in place since the Watergate era, that have kept the White House away from specific criminal investigations.
Read their full report on Durham's testimony.
Rather than chasten Schiff, censure will embolden him
Schiff is running in California's open primary for the US Senate seat that will be vacated by retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
CNN's Simone Pathe tracks Senate races and noted that the censure effort could potentially be hugely beneficial for Schiff in the crowded race, giving him plenty of media attention and fundraising fodder.
There are legitimate questions about whether the aging Feinstein, who has been ill and inaccessible to colleagues, according to a new report from CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere, will be able to finish her term.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has previously said that, given the chance, he would appoint a Black woman to the seat. There is mounting pressure for him to consider Rep. Barbara Lee. Meanwhile, Schiff was fundraising off the failed censure resolution earlier this month.
Where is the middle?
McCarthy's concern about appearing to use his majority to settle scores with Democrats is not unfounded.
Consider the exchange between CNN's Dana Bash and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on "Inside Politics" Wednesday.
They were discussing a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS that shows relatively few Republicans -- 27% -- think Trump should end his campaign due to his indictment over conspiracy, obstruction and mishandling sensitive material. That's not surprising. Trump, for now, remains the top choice of Republican and Republican-leaning voters to win their nomination, according to the poll.
On the other hand, most independents (62%) feel Trump should drop out of the race. Those results suggest to Sununu that Trump would be doomed in a general election.
"He is done. You can't win," said Sununu, who announced earlier this month that he won't run for president in 2024. "The trouble that former President Trump has in November is no one is on the fence about him. He is such a known political commodity -- either you would vote for him or you wouldn't."
