国际英语资讯:Yearender: U.S. entering deep water of 2020 election year after a year of political divisive_时事

国际英语资讯:Yearender: U.S. entering deep water of 2020 election year after a year of political divisive

The impeachment fight may further exacerbate polarization in the United States, leaving Republicans, Democrats and everyone in between feeling even more suspicious of one another, Emma Green with The Atlantic wrote.

However, polarization doesn't rule Washington every day. In the wake of the impeachment, the Capitol Hill passed a defense policy bill raising the annual U.S. defense spending by about 20 billion U.S. dollars while calling for sanctions against Russia and Turkey, an updated trade deal called the USMCA between the United States and its two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, as well as a 1.4-trillion-dollar spending package that will fund the federal government through the end of the 2020 fiscal year. All are considered as victories for both Trump and the Democrats.

"Both parties will be under pressure from voters to show they are capable of functioning and conducting some of the nation's business, despite impeachment," Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua, adding "The U.S. public ... wants key domestic issues attended to however impeachment comes out."

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

No matter how the Senate trial will unfold next year, the chance for Trump to be convicted is quite small, if not "zero" as McConnell has asserted. Republicans show no sign of abandoning the president.

It won't be as easy to predict the outcome of the 2020 Democratic primary, which is likely to overlap a delayed impeachment trial when kicking off in early February amid high competitiveness between progressives and moderates. A recent poll found 57 percent of the Democrats might change their mind before the primaries and caucuses next year.