House Democrats are under increasing pressure to hold a politically risky vote to sanction their impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
The White House is expected as early as Monday to tell Speaker Nancy Pelosi it will not cooperate with an impeachment-related subpoena drafted by Democrats until the House votes officially to open an impeachment investigation.
“We’ll be issuing a letter,” Trump told reporters Friday on the South Lawn. “As everybody knows, we’ve been treated very unfairly, very different from anybody else.”
Democrats threatened to impeach Trump for obstructing Congress if he fails to turn over the material requested in the subpoena related to the Ukraine whistleblower case. But Republicans are building an argument that the inquiry isn’t legitimate because Pelosi skipped the vote to sanction it.
Republicans contend Pelosi was shielding politically vulnerable Democrats when she broke precedent and announced last month that the House is holding an impeachment inquiry without the customary vote.
Democrats are defending dozens of contested seats, many in swing districts that support Trump and where constituents frown on the impeachment investigations. But Republicans say the political advantage Pelosi is trying to maintain by avoiding a vote is breaking decades of precedent and is fundamentally unfair to the Republican minority and the president.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, one of a handful of remaining lawmakers who, as a House member, managed the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, urged Democrats to hold a vote.
“Democrat House members cannot be allowed to hide behind Speaker Pelosi when it comes to an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump,” Graham said Friday on Twitter. “They should — and must — vote to open an inquiry of impeachment so their CONSTITUENTS, COUNTRY, and HISTORY can evaluate their actions.”
Pelosi told Republicans Thursday she is not required to hold a vote.
“The existing rules of the House provide House Committees with full authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction, including impeachment investigations,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a colleague from California.
“There is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry,” she said.
House Republican are ramping up pressure on the Democrats to either vote on an impeachment inquiry or drop it.
Republicans argue that a formal vote would establish a process for the investigation that would provide the GOP with the authority to call their own witnesses and request subpoenas, among other rights.
“As you know, there have been only three prior instances in our nation’s history when the full House has moved to formally investigate whether sufficient grounds exist for the impeachment of a sitting President,” McCarthy wrote Pelosi. “I should hope that if such an extraordinary step were to be contemplated a fourth time it would be conducted with an eye towards fairness, objectivity, and impartiality.”
A spokeswoman for Pelosi did not immediately return a request for a comment about Trump’s impending request that the House hold a formal impeachment inquiry.
Pelosi suggested this week that she is not ruling out a vote on an inquiry and that if she does, it could be damaging to Republicans.
“First of all there’s no requirement that there be a floor vote,” Pelosi told reporters.
She added, “That is not anything that is excluded. And by the way there are some Republicans that are very nervous about our bringing that vote to the floor.
So far, a small handful of GOP lawmakers have spoken out against Trump’s actions, but none are currently serving in the House.
