Sign from July 2, 2017 Impeachment March
One of the biggest political events to take place last week was U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren‘s announcement that, after reading the Mueller Report, she believes that the U.S. House “should initiate impeachment proceedings” against Donald Trump. Here is Warren’s tweet containing this announcement, which Warren reiterated during subsequent tweets and television interviews:
The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019
Democratic candidates participating in CNN‘s Town Hall last Monday were then asked whether Donald Trump should be impeached. Warren repeated her call for Trump’s impeachment to proceed. Asked whether impeachment would distract Americans from other important issues, Warren said, “there’s no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution.” Likewise, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris said, “I believe Congress should take the steps toward impeachment.” Harris added that, realistically, the Republican-run Senate would not likely vote to convict and remove Trump, “but that doesn’t mean the process should not take hold.” U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, also asked about impeachment during the town hall, said she believes Trump “should be held accountable,” that the House and Senate should hold hearings, but that as a Senator, Klobuchar sits on the “jury” in a possible impeachment trial, and, essentially, it is up to the House to bring an impeachment. Once again, however, Senator Bernie Sanders was the outlier. Sanders did not express support for impeachment of Trump. Rather, Sanders said he was most concerned with Trump getting re-elected president, and worried that an impeachment would distract Congress from other important matters, which possibly “works to Trump’s advantage.”
Although he was not part of the CNN town hall, U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell, who recently announced that he has joined the Democratic presidential contest, also stated that:
I think we’re on the road to impeachment. It’s certainly not a road anyone chose to go down. But it’s one that, you know, we may have to go down to save our country.
Arguably the point person regarding Trump’s possible impeachment is U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Thus, her evolution on impeachment in the past month is perhaps most relevant. In March, Pelosi said, “impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country.” On Monday, Pelosi sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to fellow House Democrats regarding the Mueller Report. In her letter, Pelosi essentially took the middle ground, stating that:
While our views range from proceeding to investigate the findings of the Mueller report or proceeding directly to impeachment, we all firmly agree that we should proceed down a path of finding the truth. It is also important to know that the facts regarding holding the President accountable can be gained outside of impeachment hearings.
Then, on Tuesday night, Pelosi edged toward more open-mindedness about eventually impeaching Trump:
I do believe that impeachment is one of the most divisive forces, paths that we could go down to in our country. But if the facts, the path, fact-finding takes us there, we have no choice. But we’re not there yet.
While Pelosi is being cautious, her recent statements can be read as not wanting to get ahead of the facts, and advocating use of the investigation process to build the factual record and public sentiment toward impeachment.
It’s also important to note that, while an increasing number of voters and office holders appear ready or open to “initiate the impeachment process,” they may have different definitions of what that means. Some people believe that there should be dedicated “Impeachment” hearings now. Others, including, apparently, Speaker Pelosi, believe that it’s enough for the House to focus its hearings and investigations that are already underway regarding the Trump administration, as well as new planned hearings and investigations, on building the factual record for impeachment without having the “Impeachment” label at this time. Indeed, liberal legal scholar Laurence Tribe just said:
The impeachment process, for anyone who understands what’s going on, is underway. It’s underway, but they don’t have the bumper sticker yet.
The advantages of this approach are:
–It doesn’t telegraph the Democrats’ intentions to Republicans in advance;
–House Democrats won’t appear overeager and reckless;
–The “Impeachment” label can be attached to a current or new hearing later, when the facts warrant.
In this regard, Pelosi and Congressional Democrats have more of a tightrope to walk than Democratic base voters. Pelosi and the Democratic office holders still have to deal directly with the Trump White House, still have to help run the government, and still have to try to pass legislation for the citizens of the United States. Here’s an example of Pelosi’s role, and an illustration of how she and the Congressional Democrats are thus far acting responsibly:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will meet with President Trump next week to talk about possible infrastructure legislation, following days of members of her own party urging her and other House leaders to pursue impeachment https://t.co/XIRcGEG7Vg pic.twitter.com/y0aP62gm9s
— CNN (@CNN) April 23, 2019
Photo by Master Steve Rapport, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/LvSQIQ
