Trump, allies aim to delegitimize impeachment from the start

JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — They're calling it a circus, a farce and even zany. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies spent weeks trivializing the House impeachment inquiry ahead of Tuesday's historic unveiling of formal charges against the president. Where Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton treated the prospect of impeachment as a serious threat to their presidencies, Trump's boosters have tried to brush off the whole thing. Believing that acquittal by the GOP-controlled Senate is all but certain, they're out to convince voters to punish the president's Democratic accusers — or at least tune out the Washington spectacle. To that end, they have belittled the impeachment process with mockery, schoolyard taunts and an unyielding insistence