A timeline to impeach President Trump remains unclear to rank-and-file Democrats, but they know they want it done before their party begins to coalesce around the eventual presidential nominee.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week, called on her caucus to complete the impeachment inquiry “expeditiously.” Members of the House Judiciary Committee talked of bringing articles of impeachment to the floor as early as next month, but no specific timeline has been established and she confirmed to reporters on Thursday that she gave the committees “no deadline” to complete their investigations.
Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan on Tuesday, in a Democratic Caucus meeting, put forward a proposed, relatively tight, time frame to finish up within the next few months.
“The point that I made in the caucus was that a lot of folks have been insinuating or saying outright that this was going to drag on forever,” Kildee told the Washington Examiner. “You know one of the reasons not to do it is that it’s too late, and we’re going to get into the election season, and this can go in well into next year.”
Kildee cited 1998 impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton by the then-Republican majority House. The inquiry began in October and concluded with Clinton’s impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice on Dec. 19, 1998. Two months later Clinton was acquitted in his Senate trial.
“That’s a pretty compact period. This was a different situation, in some ways, in that a lot of the facts that we rely on are already out there,” Kildee said. “There’s, obviously, some more information that we would like to have, but when the president has essentially publicly acknowledged doing what we think is an impeachable offense, it’s not like there’s a need for a lot of discovery here.”
The current House committees of jurisdiction investigating the matter, which include Judiciary and Oversight, are expected to dictate how long the process can drag on into the congressional calendar year, leaving rank-and-file Democrats relatively oblivious as to when an impeachment vote will happen.
“I think at this moment. There are six committees that are going to work on it. I don’t have a timeline to give you,” New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey said.
When asked by the Washington Examiner if an impeachment vote would happen by the end of the year, Rule Committee Chairman Jim McGovern bristled saying, “That’s an arbitrary measure. I mean the deal is, we need to get this right and I don’t want to speculate on how long. Obviously, to me, I’d like it to be done in a timely fashion, but it’s up to the committees of jurisdiction.”
However, McGovern did draw a political calendar line as to when he did think an impeach vote had to happen by, noting, “It would be hard for me to think that we would be waiting until next year or next July or August whenever our convention is. I would think it would be sooner than that.”
[Read more: Allies at odds: Trump fears impeachment hit while campaign sees opportunity knocking]
