House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday appeared to tap the brakes on impeachment discussions, arguing

[Gothmog]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday appeared to tap the brakes on impeachment discussions, arguing in a letter to her colleagues that while Democrats would hold President Trump accountable following the release of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report, they could do so without initiating impeachment hearings.

The California Democrat, who is slated to address her caucus on a conference call Monday evening, vowed that Democratic investigators “will scrupulously assert Congress’s constitutional duty to honor our oath of office to support and defend the Constitution and our democracy” by investigating the president.

“Whether currently indictable or not, it is clear that the president has, at a minimum, engaged in highly unethical and unscrupulous behavior which does not bring honor to the office he holds,” Pelosi wrote.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-says-democrats-can-hold-trump-accountable-without-impeachment-hearings/2019/04/22/68fce0c8-6514-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html?utm_term=.a1716c3e28d8

[Shell_Seas]

1. Why though?

(I'm out of WaPo articles for the month, if it says)

But, wouldn't impeachment be the morally correct thing to do at this point? Even if we can't get Senate on board. Would it cost us election one way or the other?

[samnsara]

5. i think our side would be so charged up an energized..even if we couldnt get the Senates vote..

..by now everyone who even cares about this knows there is a risk we will lose the fight..but the election? I bet not.

[delisen]

31. Why would Russia let us win in 2020? They are on a roll.

[riversedge]

7. To reset your free articles, have you tried.....

going to your History tab, pull down tab and click on Show all History, then find Washing Post and highlight it and then scroll down until you hit Forget About this (highlight and click).

You have to do this each time you hit the 10 free articles [or 5 or whatever]. good luck.

[brooklynite]

11. Or (just spitballing here...) paying for a subscription to support their journalism?

[Gothmog]

15. From the article cited in the OP

Pelosi in her Monday letter took a shot at the GOP for its muted reaction to the Mueller report.

“It is also clear that the congressional Republicans have an unlimited appetite for such low standards,” she wrote. “The GOP should be ashamed of what the Mueller report has revealed, instead of giving the president their blessings.”

Pelosi also called on the GOP-controlled Senate to take up campaign finance legislation that passed the House earlier this year, which included sweeping ethics changes. On Sunday, the president’s legal team argued that it was acceptable for the Trump campaign to seek to benefit from Russia’s hacking of the Clinton campaign.

“n light of the President’s defenders arguing in defense of receiving and weaponizing stolen emails, we continue to press our Republican House counterparts to take up our pledge to refuse to use stolen, hacked, or falsified information in campaigns because the American people deserve honest debate,” Pelosi wrote.

[cstanleytech]

23. There could be a number of reasons.

For example they could be afraid removing him from office so far from the elections could give Pence time to solidify his hold making it harder to win where as they view Trump as the weaker candidate.
The other reason is they could be planning to use Trump as a cudgel against the varies spineless and cowardly Repugnants currently in office that are trying to win another term.

[manicdem]

24. Not enough house votes?

It's also possible that Pelosi thinks there aren't enough votes in the House which would be an embarrassment for the party if the vote fails

[cstanleytech]

25. That is certainly another possibility.

[samnsara]

2. i will settle for nothing less than political castration ...however that is achieved...

..i dont care..

[JohnnyRingo]

3. I'm with Nancy on this.

No one knows political climate change and head counts better than her. She's not one to waste time & effort spinning wheels on anything.

[agingdem]

10. agree...

I want death by a thousand cuts...investigations, subpoenas, public testimony, SDNY...I want every rock (the home of Trump cockroaches) turned over...I want a roll call censure on the House floor..I want the Orange Anus to rant and rage and no one care...I want irrelevance...

[Justice]

17. Totally agree.

[lagomorph777]

22. Take a page from the GOP playbook (except using reality instead of made-up nonsense)

Investigate these pigs to death. They are so corrupt, we will find MAGAts under every rock from now until 2020.

[cstanleytech]

26. Long term I want payback x3 on the Repugnants once we regain a simple majority

in the Senate and House.
By that I mean we ram through multiple judges just like they did and do things like increase SCOTUS and appoint liberal judges to it to offset what they did.

[JohnnyRingo]

28. It wouldn't hurt to see his family meet justice either.

Hard to claim martyrdom or a coup if his kids and that snot Jarrod pay for their crimes. That should be enough to bring on that first heart attack.

[agingdem]

35. shunned and ostracized should be on the payback menu

trump's disgusting spawn don't get the degree to which the public hates their entitled guts...I want them spit on, publicly taunted..afraid to leave their lairs... I want them uninvited and unwelcome, I want mountains of subpoenas, millions and millions of dollars in legal bills, but more than anything I want them all handcuffed the instant they walk out of the White House...

[SharonAnn]

14. I totally agree. Lots of information needs to come out and then decide.

[forgotmylogin]

18. I'm for "tapping the brakes"...

If only to start impeachment during the election cycle so it drives 45 absolutely bonkers with less time to multitask and sweep stuff under the rug.

[SunSeeker]

39. That makes no sense. We cannot wait. Nov. 2020 is only 18 months away.

We must start formal impeachment investigation hearings now to get the truth out BEFORE the election.

[SunSeeker]

36. She is not "tapping the brakes on impeachment." If anything, she is putting it on the table.

HuffPost sees her statement as a "nod to impeachers."

[riversedge]

4. Pelosi is clearly saying, once again, that the public needs to be educated with the facts of Trumps

misdeeds. She has said that previously. I have to agree. The public is not yet on board. I am impatient--she is right.



................She added: “As we proceed to uncover the truth and present additional needed reforms to protect our democracy, we must show the American people we are proceeding free from passion or prejudice, strictly on the presentation of fact.”

[mcar]

19. Pelosi is correct

The public is not yet on board. We are impatient because we have immersed ourselves in it. Many haven't - yet, Dotards approval % is going down.

Open hearings, testimony under oath, document releases - as in Watergate, it will chip away at the Republican party's bubble and expose the corruption inside.

[Fiendish Thingy]

30. Approval for impeachment jumped 8 points since the release of the redacted report

Now is not the time to tap the brakes, now is the time to launch a formal impeachment inquiry, which will allow Congress to avoid the court delays that help Trump run out the clock.

[SunSeeker]

37. Totally agree. And I don't read her statement as "tapping the breaks."

Neither does HuffPost:

[SunSeeker]

38. No. She is not saying that. She is in fact acknowledging the call for impeachment.

She did not say the public is not on board for impeachment. 58% of Americans just polled by Reuters believe Trump obstructed justice. 40% support impeachment. That's twice as many as supported impeachment when Democrats started impeachment investigation hearings against Nixon.

[man4allcats]

6. Impeach the bastid!!! n/t

[awesomerwb1]

8. The uninformed may not yet be on board with impeachment

but the Dem leadership better get their thinking hats on and get to work on how to reach and inform as many people as possible effectively so they're not faux spews watching ignoramuses anymore.

Get creative and get to work Dems.

[PeeJ52]

9. The Blue Wave was not to pass legislation. One House cannot pass legislation.

The Blue Wave was to hold tRump accountable. If that isn't done, a lot will stay home in 2020.

[brooklynite]

12. No it was NOT...

I spoke to 50-odd candidates in the 2018 cycle, and NONE of them said that voters wanted to talk about Trump. They wanted to talk about jobs, health care, education costs, and other economic issues.

[PeeJ52]

16. So those candidates lied to them and told them they would be able to get that passed?

I imagine they had questions, but surely they realized that none of that would happen with tRump in the White House. They had to know the only way to get those things passed was to hold tRump responsible and remove him from office. Did you believe those issues could be addressed with tRump as pResident?

[at140]

13. Nancy pelosi is a proven & experienced

Leader. No sense to distrust her conclusion. It has small chance in Senate to convict. Then it will give Drumpf non stop crowing issue for his campaign.

[robbedvoter]

20. Because I guess she doesn't have the votes

The Seth Moultons, Tim Ryans and such...

[ArizonaLib]

21. Democrats need to campaign on capturing the senate for more presidential accountability and SCOTUS

It will work if we do it.

[Progressive dog]

27. The Speaker is handling the investigation of Trump in the right way

An effort to impeach Trump so that he can be found not guilty in the Senate helps Trump.

There are multiple ongoing investigations of Trump that will certainly turn up more evidence of wrongdoing.

There is lots more evidence that the Congress does not have. Even the full Mueller report and the underlying evidence is being withheld. Trump's tax returns have been demanded, but Trump will order the law ignored so that he can keep them secret. His accountant has been subpoenaed for his financial records, there is a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report and underlying evidence.
Investigations take time, especially when Trump obstructs while Republicans cheer.

[Raven123]

29. Pelosi proposing an investigative, legislative and possibly a Constitutional approach

I’m in favor. Do nothing to the exclusion of the other responses. They are all important.

[Qutzupalotl]

32. As impatient as I am,

I recognize that we cannot impeach immediately after Congress returns from break. But we can investigate, without necessarily calling them impeachment investigations.

The public needs more time to sift through the 430-page report. Despite Barr’s lies, Mueller laid out ten clear instances of obstruction but stopped short of indictment only because of the standing OLC opinion against indicting a sitting president. It wouldn’t have been fair to the subject to suspend that policy based on who the president is or even the severity of the offense.

Even where crimes are not spelled out, Trump’s behavior is appalling and an abuse of power. Telling subordinates to lie to the FBI is impeachable misconduct, and we could start the impeachment process now just with what we have. But I like the idea of televised hearings, helping to educate the public who might not have bothered to read the report about just how lawless Trump’s conduct was. That will gradually bring the public around and boost support for impeachment.

At some point before the 2020 election, the House should impeach, regardless of prospects in the Senate. This is not lying about a blowjob; asking for and accepting Russian help is possibly the most serious offense a presidential candidate has ever committed. That scofflaw attitude has continued throughout his presidency, and is only getting worse.

Impeachment (at some point) is the right thing to do. If we fail to even try to impeach out of fear of a Senate acquittal, we are saying political power is more important than the rule of law.

[SunSeeker]

33. That is not how HuffPo reads her statement. They said it was a "NOD TO IMPEACHERS"

https://m.huffpost.com/us

[Kurt V.]

34. i don't do hero worship. pelosi is wrong not to start an inquiry

[essaynnc]

40. So if we don't start the impeachment proceedings.......

What is the process for holding them accountable for anything that is uncovered and even proven during the investigations that will follow??? I've seen them ignore and obfuscate virtually every charge that has been thrown at them, and because they don't follow the unwritten rules, nothing seems to phase them, they just keep doing it! So how will they ever be held accountable for their actions????

[PeeJ52]

41. It appears Nancy gave the perfect response as one side sees it no impeach the other, impeach...

now that's a politician! Please both sides with the same statement.

[Nevermypresident]

42. I certainly hope she changes her mind...maybe a majority of her fellow House Democrats

will convince her.

[Jedi Guy]

43. At this point, starting impeachment hearings would be a gift to the GOP, so I agree with Pelosi.

It'd allow Trump and his cronies to crow that the Democrats are afraid of facing him in 2020, so they're trying to take him down another way. That's already how they're framing Mueller's investigation and its results. Why hand them even more ammo?

For folks who aren't politically inclined like those of us here and are thus less informed, it'd look like a partisan hit job. The reality is that a lot of people simply don't pay attention to politics and aren't engaged. As long as they have a job and they can pay their bills, they don't much care who's running the show.

It'd definitely rev up the GOP base going into election season. It might even induce some of them who dislike him enough to stay home to reconsider that decision and vote for him.

Trump is so crooked he has to screw his pants on in the morning and we all know it. Unfortunately, the math is against us in the Senate. The GOP senators just won't vote to convict unless there's a smoking gun, and right now there isn't one. With no way to get a conviction, there are more downsides than upsides regarding impeachment, in my opinion.

[Omaha Steve]

44. After a review by forum hosts...locking.

Not the published headline and saying the Speaker "appeared" to tap the brakes" makes the article opinion.