Discussion: Pelosi Pours Cold Water On Impeachment: 'We Can Investigate' Without 'Drafting Articles'
So, we’ll just go ahead and set the precedent that other than possibly committing cold blooded murder in a room full of witnesses there is no such thing as an impeachable offense.
I think she’s open to impeachment, but wants to collect as much damaging information as possible before the call is made. One way or another we’ll arrive at outing the criminal from the WH.
Pretty much. It seems like she’s more concerned about making sure EVERYTHING is done well. They would have to make sure things are airtight and that all the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted. If they’re gonna do it, they have to do it RIGHT, especially with removal being slim even if he’s impeached
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi encouraged her colleagues to pump the breaks on talk of impeachment”
So it is obvious why her lackeys like Nadler are slow-walking the investigations.
She has never ever been open to impeachment.
“I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”
I think she keeps downplaying the idea which helps to keep the criminal in limbo. He can’t relax and possibly think he’s off the hook.
Only a third of the voters support impeachment at this point. Pelosi is aware of that, I’m pretty sure. She does this stuff for a living. The idea that impeachment will undoubtedly create support for itself seems, well, dubious to me. And it doesn’t seem necessary to bet our republic’s life on it right now.
I get what Pelosi is doing. It makes perfect sense to let junior reps call for impeachment so that leadership can play the good cop by pushing back on those calls. Obviously, we don’t want to give the utterly corrupt Repubs and the not-so-fair-and-balanced MSM a sitting target that they can howl about, drowning out the real news of the deepening investigation. That said, it causes me real pain that this man and his enablers in the WH and in Congress are free to walk the earth day after day, crowing about exoneration, and calling for investigations into the FBI and Hillary and whatever other bs the MSM lets them bleat into their microphones. If I was Pelosi, I would totally blow it because I don’t feel like I can take any more.
“ 1 We can investigate Trump without drafting articles [of impeachment],” she said, according to sources on the call who spoke to Politico. “[ 2 ] We aren’t going to go faster, we are going to go as fast as the facts take us.”
1 is absolutely true and [ 2 ] is a meaningless platitude at best.
I much preferred the statement issued by Rep. Cummings:
“A lot of people keep asking about the question of impeachment. We may very well come to that very soon, but right now let’s make sure we understand what Mueller was doing, understand what Barr was doing, and see the report in an unredacted form and all of the underlying documents.”
It has occurred to me that Trump is Trump’s own worst enemy.
Impeachment is going to happen anyway, regardless of what AP and others would like to throw on the “Democrats In Disarray Collection”
Trump, if he is feeling that Pelosi is giving him a “Stay Out Of Jail Free” card on this, is likely to incriminate himself just that much faster.
It also gives Trump the opportunity to obstruct every investigation. I realize that there is the possibility that the corrupt judges that McConnell has pushed through will declare that POTUS is not bound by Congressional oversight, but at this point, we have to realize that if they will do that they would also vote that he wasn’t bound by anything at all. This builds the case. Proceed, Madam Speaker. (And there are always rallies with people chanting "Build the Case! Build the Case!)
WTF does it matter what Barr was doing? He came to the party after everyone else finally tired of looking for ice and cold beer and went home. And Dems have already decided he’s a bad actor in this drama, bereft of good intent and sound, impartial judgment. Fuck Barr. We have to understand what he was doing, in terms of proceeding to impeachment…how?
After drafting articles, a HJC debate and then a House debate will follow. It’s possible that republicans will speed up the debates to get impeachment into the Senate sooner, which would make Dems look bad. I think it’s reasonable to slow down in order to better control the whole process.
Perhaps only a third of the voters support impeachment because Pelosi and her minions keep pouring cold water on it. In 1974 under Speaker Carl Albert, the Democrats had the courage to perform their duty under the Constitution. They did not have the votes in the Senate, either. But they had courage to stand up to a lawless Republican President.
“It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the President should be removed from office. The Constitution doesn’t say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the body of the Legislature against and upon the encroachments of the Executive. The division between the two branches of the Legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the Framers of this Constitution were very astute. They did not make the accusers and the judgers – and the judges the same person.”
I trust her political instincts on this one.
She can count
There are not enough votes in the senate no matter how you slice it.
They will endeavor to make Trumps life a living hell as they expose the one thing he doesn’t want exposed. His flimsy empire.
Who knows, maybe it will push him over the edge
Polls vary. I’ve seen very recent polling that indicates 2/3 of Democrats and 1/2 of independents favor impeachment. Certainly those two groups tally more than a third of the electorate?
The problem is that impeachment is the method that the Constitution provides Congress for holding the president accountable. Saying that we can hold him accountable without discussing impeachment is nonsense.
Part of the problem with the way that the House leadership seems to be approaching this whole issue is that they don’t appear to be viewing the question of the political consequences of their action (or inaction) holistically. Instead, they view the potential, immediate downside electoral risk of impeaching as an unalterable fact and downside risk of not impeaching (and thus demoralizing their base) as something that can be finessed…all while entirely avoiding considering the long-term impact of the decision (and this will have a long-term impact, whatever they do, as, e.g. Iran-Contra and Watergate illustrate).
One gets the impression that the House leadership is not giving careful consideration to whether or not to impeach, but is rather trying to figure out how to guide the party away from impeachment.
The leadership is so committed to avoiding anything that looks like a constitutional crisis that they have blinded themselves to the fact that we are already in the middle of one. And that choosing not to act out of a poorly directed sense of risk aversion will only make that crisis worse.
Build the case. Just because Pelosi is saying no now does not mean she isn’t giving serious thought to it. None of us know what she’s saying or thinking behind closed doors.
Nancy knows how to bring in the campaign cash, but she knows nothing about exciting the base. As has been stated, she’s setting a very very low bar for future Presidential behavior. Shame on her.
That’s sort of like objecting to an investigation of John Mitchell because it was more important to go after Nixon.