What drives a passion for guns? For one man, it started in childhood and continues with loyalty to a cause 鈥 if not to the giant organization he鈥檚 fighting to clean up. 聽
Today鈥檚 stories include a rebel gun owner taking on the NRA from the inside, a defining moment in Polish politics, a counterintuitive coastal construction boom, the struggle for migrants returning home to their native Nigeria, and a glimpse of the world builders that hope to capture TV audiences this fall.
First, let鈥檚 take a deeper look at a French phrase that鈥檚 reappeared in the news lately: 鈥渃oup d鈥櫭﹖at.鈥
鈥淐oup鈥 is shorthand for overthrowing a government. Experts define it specifically as ousting an executive authority by extralegal means.
It鈥檚 relevant today because President Donald Trump has used it to describe the ongoing House impeachment inquiry. Supporters follow his lead: On Thursday an attendee at a Minneapolis Trump rally told Yahoo News that impeachment 鈥渋s , and it鈥檚 at the highest levels of intelligence agencies.鈥
This is misleading. Impeachment is a legal process outlined by the Constitution to allow Congress to weigh charges of misconduct against top U.S. officials.
To call it a coup聽is to embrace a 鈥渄eep state鈥 conspiracy theory for which no evidence now exists.
But the charge isn鈥檛 unprecedented. Frustrated partisans in past impeachments have used 鈥渃oup鈥 as well. President Richard Nixon鈥檚 supporters did. President Bill Clinton鈥檚 did too.
The day before the Republican-led House voted to impeach President Clinton in December 1998 members engaged in a marathon debate that echoed some of the arguments used today.
鈥淭his partisan coup d鈥櫭﹖at will go down in infamy in the history of this nation,鈥 said one Democrat.
That lawmaker was Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, who today is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a key player in the current impeachment process.