A group of progressive House Democrats made their case to rank-and-file lawmakers on Wednesday that it’s time to open an impeachment inquiry into President Trump. But their efforts were not enough to convince party lawmakers who remain wary of taking such a dramatic step, favoring court fights instead.
“The overwhelming majority of the House Democratic Caucus continues to believe that the speaker has set forth the appropriate course, which is deliberate yet forceful,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said after the meeting. “There are a growing number of House members who have articulated a desire to move toward an impeachment inquiry but as far as I can tell that number is somewhere between 20 and 25.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., opposes opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump despite an increasingly tense standoff between Democratic-led oversight panels and the White House over documents and witness testimony that Trump has blocked from Congress. Pelosi favors the approach employed by House Ways and Means Committee Richie Neal, D-Mass., who is suing for access to Trump’s tax returns.
“The overwhelming majority continue to believe that we should proceed along the course that we’re on right now,” Jeffries said.
Pelosi scheduled Wednesday’s meeting to update lawmakers on the oversight work and court battles but she also opened up the forum to impeachment proponents, who believe it’s time to open an inquiry because it would provide quicker access to information the Trump administration is withholding.
“Today there was a lot of impeachment talk,” Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla. who does not support an impeachment inquiry, told the Washington Examiner.
Many impeachment advocates are progressives and members of the House Judiciary Committee, which has been engaged in a weekslong fight with the White House over access to the unredacted Mueller report as well as other documents and witness testimony.
“We have responsibility and an obligation to talk to other members and describe to them the process the Judiciary Committee has been involved in to try to explain to them our reasoning for why we believe that opening an inquiry is the right thing to do,” Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., said after the meeting.
Heads of the panels conducting Trump administration oversight took turns updating the caucus on their progress in obtaining documents and pointed to recent court cases that have so far sided with the legislative branch and against the Trump administration.
A federal judge this week ruled against Trump’s attempt to block a House Oversight panel subpoena of his finances, which many lawmakers said strengthens the case for taking the fight to court and not the well of the House.
Democrats also praised a deal announced Wednesday between the Department of Justice and the House Intelligence Committee to allow panel members to view some of the underlying counterintelligence documents in the Mueller report that they have been seeking.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Ma., told lawmakers he is taking Trump to court to gain access to his tax returns, which the Treasury Department has refused to furnish.
Neal has made no mention of impeachment or pursuing contempt charges against Treasury or IRS officials who maintain custody of the tax returns and won’t hand them over.
“At this particular point, I think the speaker is absolutely correct,” Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said. “Richie Neal and his methodical approach is absolutely correct.”
Pascrell cited the new court ruling in favor of the House Oversight request for financial documents. The judge ruled Congress had a right to the documents as part of their oversight responsibility.
“There is no need to begin impeachment procedures,” Pascrell said.
Pelosi’s top concern is maintaining the majority in 2020, which will require holding seats won in swing districts, where constituents do not favor a drawn-out impeachment proceeding that would dominate the Congress for many weeks.
Frankel said constituents in her South Florida district, many of them seniors, don’t care about impeachment. They want her to work on lowering prescription drug prices.
Frankel stood up in the meeting and urged the caucus to pursue a kitchen-table agenda, not an attempt to oust the president. She backs the oversight panels pursuing witnesses and documents from the Trump administration.
“The impeachment question is just taking up all the oxygen in the room,” Frankel said. “I like the committees to keep going. You can’t drop it and just give in to his cover-up and stonewalling. But we’ve got to keep pushing forward with our agenda and making sure people know about it. If all everyone is talking about is impeachment, that’s how he charges up his supporters. “
Pelosi said after the meeting, “It was a very positive meeting, a respectful sharing of ideas and a very impressive presentation by our chairs. We do believe it’s important to follow the facts, we believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States, and we believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up — in a cover-up. And that was the nature of the meeting.”
