Just one day after leading the charge to impeach President Trump in the House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sat for an interview with Politico, brushing off Republican attempts to paint her delay in delivering the articles to the Senate as a sign of weakness.
Nancy is a role model for the ages. A strong, moral, unafraid woman. Just like RBG, I hope she inspires generations of young people to be like her – true to the law, to beliefs and to herself. Her “don’t mess with me” exit to complete and utter silence in the press room was breathtaking.
Pelosi is lauded for her political genius. But I have to wonder how far along several lawsuits pursuing “nail Trump to the wall” testimony would be if she had been as dogged and determined in pursuing impeachment starting 1/3/2019, as opposed to dithering for several months as she did. We could possibly be sitting here today with court orders, with contempt and jail as options for disobeying, against a slew of administration officials. With all their testimony and documents tossed into the articles being forwarded to the Senate. She would have gotten to her House majority consensus starting early or starting late, and the latter route has robbed her of the strongest case to present to the Senate.
On the recent increase in House Republican lawmakers announcing retirements: “It means that they know they’re gonna lose,” she reportedly said. “And if you win, you’re going to serve in the minority under a Democratic president. You may want to spend more time with your family.”
Or to spend more time with their lawyers. Looking at you Nunes!
The Republicans are playing checkers while Speaker Pelosi is playing (and winning) Kal-Toh. Their “self-awareness” (i.e., lack thereof) is absolutely amazing. What was in that Kool-Aid?
“This option needs to be taken seriously now that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced his intention to conduct not a real trial but a whitewash, letting the president and his legal team call the shots.”
Meanwhile. White House enablers are hard at work, trying to create a fantasy world that will allow Trump to exist from minute to minute without nuking France or something: >>
Lawyers close to President Donald Trump are exploring whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to temporarily withhold articles of impeachment from the Senate could mean that the president hasn’t actually been impeached.
The case is a rhetorical one following Wednesday night’s vote to impeach the president on two articles. The U.S. Constitution grants the House of Representatives full authority over impeachment. But the argument is part of an effort by the White House and Senate Republicans to maximize their leverage as lawmakers debate when and how to conduct a trial on charges that the president abused his power to solicit an investigation into political rival Joe Biden, and obstructed the congressional investigation into the matter.
The White House legal theory, according to a person familiar with the legal review, is that if Trump has been officially impeached, the Senate should already have jurisdiction. Backers of the theory would argue that the clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives the Senate “the sole Power to try all Impeachments” indicates that the impeachment isn’t formalized until the House reported the charges to the upper chamber.
My reaction to your surmise is that if Nancy had started on day one of Democratic control of the House then the Republicans would have more of a point to claim that Democratic members wanted Trump gone from day 1.
We hadn’t gotten the results of the Mueller report, we hadn’t seen how Barr would highjack the conclusions, and by waiting for what happened under Dems control of the House put Trump’s crimin’ and lyin’ directly under Dems purview of oversight.