House Democrats, on the eve of unveiling impeachment articles against President Trump, are also poised to give him his most cherished legislative priority, a new, three-way trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
“We’re close. We’re not quite finished yet. We’re in range,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said late Monday at the Wall Street Journal‘s annual CEO council meeting.
But the California Democrat demurred when asked whether there was 100% support for the proposed framework from her caucus. “You don’t have to have unanimity, you just have to have consensus,” she said.
Pelosi suggested new treaty language with better labor rights and environmental enforcement provisions would be unveiled on Tuesday during U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner’s trip to Mexico, while an implementing instrument would be revealed on a separate occasion. She hinted the arrangement would not stop outsourcing.
Her comments echoed those made by House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, who told reporters on Capitol Hill late Monday, “I think it’s fair to say we’re doing great.”
“Better than the Pats yesterday,” he said, referring to New England’s NFL franchise and its Sunday loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kushner, however, was more coy when pressed at the same Wall Street Journal event. “We’ll see what happens,” he said. “We’re making pretty good progress.”
The long-awaited United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, is set to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, once it is ratified.
On the other news of the day, Pelosi said the prospect of introducing articles of impeachment against President Trump was a “prayful” and “somber” moment for the country, declining to provide details on the measures, though reports surfaced Monday night they would cover abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
“Nobody comes to Congress to impeach a president,” she said, adding censuring Trump over his attempts to leverage U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on domestic political rival Joe Biden “never had life.”
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law through his marriage to first daughter and fellow White House adviser Ivanka Trump, remained defiant. “The president thinks he did absolutely nothing wrong,” he said.
