House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped a bombshell in an interview with the Washington Post magazine stating that she doesn’t think it’s worth impeaching President Trump.
While Pelosi, D-Calif., attempted to get her caucus to concentrate on Democratic legislation instead of impeachment, this is the first time she’s explicitly stated she’s not in favor of it unless it surpassed the criteria of high crimes and misdemeanors, saying, “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.”
Of course there are many Democrats who have tried to bring forward impeachment proceedings in the House, even when Republicans had the majority.
Following the firing of FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, introduced a resolution in the House to impeach Trump, citing obstruction of justice.
At the same time, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tried to slow Green’s roll, saying, “No one ought to, in my view, rush to embrace the most extraordinary remedy that involves the removal of the president from office.”
About eight days after Trump fired Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether the Trump campaign had any role in it.
In June 2017, Rep. Al Green again tried to draft articles of impeachment, this time recruiting Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., culminating in a formal introduction to the House in July. House Republicans refused to take up the measure.
A second privileged resolution on articles of impeachment was introduced by Green to the House in December 2017, but the measure was defeated with 364 against and only 58 in favor. Among Democrats, 126 voted against the resolution.
With Democrats re-taking control of the House in the 2018 midterm election, the progressive wing of the party has been vocal about its intent to impeach Trump.
In early March 2019, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., announced her intent to file an impeachment resolution, suggesting that Trump has already committed offenses that warrant such action.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., pushed back saying, “impeachment’s a long way down the road,” but conceded that Trump committed obstruction of justice.
So while Pelosi will face plenty of pushback from her caucus about staving off impeachment proceedings, she could be saving the Democratic Party from themselves if they’re successful in ousting Trump from office. Pelosi could be seeing the writing on the wall and that such action might backfire on Democrats in the worst possible way.
