Nancy Pelosi was asked by the Washington Post how she felt about impeaching Donald Trump:
I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: 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. And he’s just not worth it.
Ouch!
8 Comments
I believe that’s what’s called a cover story for a (bad) political calculation. As if the country isn’t already deeply divided … failing to enforce accountability for gargantuan wrongdoing both legitimizes said wrongdoing while incentivizing even more wrongdoing in the future. It’s quite reasonable to expect that, had Democrats held G W Bush accountable for his misdeeds Trump would never have been appointed president.
Nancy Pelosi would be wise re keep in mind that she only became speaker again due to her depth of experience, and not continue to advertise how out of step with today’s mainstream many of her positions are.
I second James’ comment. If Trump is guilty of treason, or even if we believe he is capable of it, how can we leave him in office?
Justice should not be political. Trump (or anyone) should be held accountable for his crimes, through congress and justice system, otherwise this is sham.
I have a different view of Pelosi’s “political calculation”. First of all, impeachment is designed to be political, it is done by Congress, not the courts. Second, the majority of Americans are currently against impeachment. Third, it sounds like you are saying that Pelosi should move to impeach Trump, even before we see the conclusions of the various investigations (not just Mueller, but various state Attorneys General, plus Congressional investigations). That would be premature. The Senate would never convict Trump until there is good evidence against him.
Pelosi is not saying that Trump will never be impeached. She is saying not until we have concrete evidence against him. I believe that we will have that soon. Pelosi is wise to wait.
And remember, it took several years to (try to) impeach Nixon. And Trump has the Senate Republicans much more in his pocket than Nixon ever did.
Actually she seems to be saying, at least in this interview, that she wont pursue impeachment. period. However i agree with her. However revolting Trump is and however unimaginable it is that the people of the US voted him president and a decent percentage of them still support him, talking about impeaching a president just because a large percentage of the US population dislikes and distrusts him is a path that we don’t want to go down on.
Instead of feeding on the hate of liberals and progressives democrats should work on bringing to light whatever corrupt act Trump has undertaken. It seems there are multiple ways to do that. Once that’s done and if there’s clear evidence of wrongdoing, in a perfect world Trump would get the perfect rebuke by being routed in a republican primary. I would love to see the republicans who helped vote him in rebuke him first. That would give me hope for the future.And once that’s done then lock him up!
THERE WILL BE A WHITE NATIONALIST UP RISING IF TRUMP IS IMPEACHED. THERE WILL BE NO “EMERGENCY ORDER” HIS SONS ARE TRAINING IN UPSTATE NEW YORK ON THEIR 40 ACRES. ALL HAVE GUNS. THEY WILL USE THEM.
All-caps is a twit signal. So is rising up, with guns, against a army armed with guns and tanks and drones and bombs. And so is confusing braggadocio with popularity.
Unfortunately Pelosi’s Senate arithmetic is correct. Fortunately right now the D’s can investigate and expose. The crimes and follies thus revealed just might flip enough R senators; and failing that, they will help the D’s take the Senate and/or the White House in 2020.
To the fascists I say: do your worst, we’ll do our best.
Idiots all, there was no collusion, no crime.
Unless you take into account Bill’s visit with AG Lynch. Not that’s real collusion.