The Impeachment Dam Is Breaking Against Nancy Pelosi

By Paul Blest  |  May 21, 2019 | 2:57pm
Congress

After multiple reports on Monday night that several members of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership team were breaking with her in pushing for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, a steady stream of House Democrats have publicly called for impeachment proceedings this morning.

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Pramila Jayapal—who also sits on the House Judiciary Committee—and Mark Pocan both called for an inquiry to begin.

“Stonewalling Congress on witnesses and the unredacted Mueller report only enhances the President’s appearance of guilt, and as a result, he has pushed Congress to a point where we must start an impeachment inquiry,” Pocan said.

So far, Pelosi has fiercely resisted calls for impeachment proceedings. “That’s what he’s doing. Every single day, he’s just like taunting, taunting, taunting because he knows that it would be very divisive in the country, but he doesn’t really care,” Pelosi said earlier this month. “He just wants to solidify his base.”

Pelosi’s aversion to impeachment, however, is decidedly not shared by many in her caucus. Texas Reps. Veronica Escobar, Joaquin Castro, and Sheila Jackson-Lee, as well as Kentucky Rep. and House Budget committee chairman John Yarmuth have all either publicly called for impeachment or told reporters that it’s time for proceedings to begin today.

The calls for impeachment are all but certain to increase after today, when former White House counsel Don McGahn failed to show up to a House Judiciary Committee hearing to which he’d been subpoenaed.

In Politico’s account of Monday’s tense meeting between Pelosi and fellow Democrats, Rep. Ted Lieu reportedly said that McGahn not showing up to the hearing would be an “inflection point.” Pelosi reportedly pushed back on that, arguing that the Democrats have “invested too much time” in the process to sideline the many ongoing investigations.

It appears, however, that Pelosi’s getting the hint that many in the caucus are furious. The speaker reportedly announced a Wednesday morning meeting with the caucus to provide them an update.

Will it actually amount to anything? Who knows! Love to live in this, the greatest democracy the world has ever known.

Update, 11:30 a.m. ET: Another wave of members is calling for impeachment proceedings, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, the vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

This is a developing story, and will be updated as more information comes in.

 
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