A former aide to Hillary Clinton is fed up with Democratic leadership’s hesitation to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump and is openly considering a run against House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler.
Peter Daou, who led digital operations for Clinton’s 2008 campaign, railed against House leaders’ insistence to focus on investigations, not impeachment, during an interview Friday.
“This is not a time for half-measures. We are facing a threat we’ve never faced before — certainly within our lifetimes — and that’s an autocrat as a president, somebody who has no respect for the rule of law,” Daou told MSNBC’s Ari Melber.
“I don’t want to impugn the integrity of Speaker Pelosi or Representative Nadler … but they are failing colossally at this point,” Daou added.
Daou said that he believes “the Democratic Party leadership needs to change” and revealed that he considering entering the primary for Nadler’s seat so he could “walk the talk.”
Nadler has represented New York’s 10th Congressional District, located in New York City, since 1992 and has been a vocal critic of the president.
Daou urged Democrats to use their “inherent contempt power” to arrest those who defy subpoenas. Daou was referring to a constitutional authority granted to the House that allows them to “unilaterally arrest and detain an individual found to be ‘obstruct[ing] the performance of the duties of the legislature.’” This process has not been used since the 1930s.
There have been increasing calls from rank-and-file Democrats to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump following special counsel Robert Mueller’s statement to the press in May where he said that if his team “had had confidence the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”
Mueller completed his 22-month investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election in March. His report, released by the Justice Department with redactions in April, shows Mueller’s team was unable to criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Mueller outlined 10 scenarios of possible obstruction in his report, but declined to make a determination about whether the president obstructed justice.
Although Trump says he has been vindicated, Democrats argue Mueller’s refusal to clear Trump on obstruction provides them a road map to continue to investigate and possibly seek impeachment. Attorney General William Barr said he and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined there was not sufficient evidence to establish a crime had occurred.
Nadler and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are increasingly at odds over impeachment, at least in private, as the New York Democrat is pushing fellow leaders for proceedings to begin at the behest of the Democrats on his panel. But Pelosi said she believes Trump is trying to bait the Democrats with impeachment, and instead would rather “see him in prison.”
In public, Nadler has said investigations are necessary in order to garner enough public support for impeachment. Polling last month showed a rise in Americans supporting impeachment, but those figures were still less than 50%. Polling released on Thursday showed 35% of registered voters in favor of starting impeachment proceedings, while 45% opposed.
Although impeachment has been placed by the wayside, Democrats have scheduled a contempt vote against Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn on June 11 for their refusal to comply with subpoenas for documents and testimony related to Mueller’s investigation.
Trump said in May that impeachment is “a dirty, filthy, disgusting word,” and that he was innocent of any high crimes or misdemeanors that would qualify as an impeachable offense.
Daou said “politics doesn’t matter” and impeachment is what “the Constitution demands of us” when there is a “lawless and corrupt president” in power, and “the far right is taking over this country.”
