ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Yes, the House impeachment inquiries have many people glued to their televisions and checking updates on their phones, but not everyone. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for one, says he's not watching. And Colorado Public Radio's Bente Birkeland finds plenty of people in her state, regardless of their political views, are not excited about the prospect of impeachment.
BENTE BIRKELAND, BYLINE: Fifty-three-year-old Drew Morgan lives in the conservative-leaning western Colorado city of Grand Junction. He describes himself as a liberal Republican who did not vote for President Trump in 2016. But he says he doesn't see the hearings offering any new information.
DREW MORGAN: I'm just going to give it some attention, but I really wish they would start moving on to other things.
BIRKELAND: Seventy-one-year-old Martin Kilroy (ph) says he doesn't need to watch the hearings to know how he feels. He calls himself a very big Trump fan and says he'll catch the highlights on Fox News.
MARTIN KILROY: I think the impeachment thing is a total fraud. It's - it goes against the American people. And the swamp in D.C. - they're just kidding themselves.
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BIRKELAND: Across the state at this light rail stop just west of Denver, suburban Democratic voter Betina Hemingway says she's no fan of President Trump.
BETINA HEMINGWAY: My opinion of the current administration is so bad that I just - I can't stomach it.
BIRKELAND: Hemingway says she follows the news a lot but is actively avoiding watching the impeachment hearings.
HEMINGWAY: Everything is just so split. And we just need more balance. It's just so out of balance.
JOE BROSKY: I'm just becoming inundated by the hoopla without much substance.
BIRKELAND: That's Joe Brosky, who says he switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat after President Trump got elected. He thinks there's already enough evidence for impeachment.
But Nicholas Nicols is on the fence about it. He wants the inquiry to be bipartisan, even though he doesn't think it will be, and says politics has always been a dirty business.
NICHOLAS NICOLS: I want it to stop being pick a side and then go with whatever your angle is and whatever your news outlet tells you because everyone's playing politics with the issue. It's at a point now where I don't know what the actual law is.
BIRKELAND: Many Coloradans say they try to avoid talking about Trump and impeachment because they don't want to offend people with different views. A lot of voters also say they hope the proceedings end before too long.
For NPR News, I'm Bente Birkeland in Denver.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
