Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, said that he supports opening an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“It’s not the right thing to do nothing,” Reid said in a Tuesday interview with USA Today. “It’s not the right thing to jump into impeachment without doing an inquiry.”
He said the goal of the inquiry should be to “give the American people a view of what’s going on.”
Reid said in an interview last month that Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was “handling things the right way” with seeking witnesses to testify before seeking to impeach Trump, but should be cautious about impeaching Trump.
The former Nevada senator said he shared Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s concerns about political backlash.
“[Y]ou don’t have to go very far to remember what happened. I mean, Clinton was impeached — it helped him. And, you know, I’ve been saying that for several months,” Reid said.
A quarter of the Democratic House Caucus support opening an impeachment inquiry against Trump. If opened, an inquiry means the House would look at potential charges against the president, but would not be the same as voting to impeach the president.
Pelosi said last week that Democrats are on the “path” to impeachment.
