House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that Democrats would push forward with impeaching President Trump for abusing his office to undermine national security and the integrity of the election process.
“With allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment,” Pelosi said.
The powerful Democratic leader accused Trump of blatantly ignoring the law by using desperately needed American defense aid to Ukraine as leverage to get partisan investigations of Democrats.
“The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security,” Pelosi said in a somber six-minute statement.
It didn’t take long for the dignified sheen to come off what is already a bare-knuckled political brawl.
During her press conference, Pelosi angrily called President Trump a “coward” and lashed out at a reporter for asking if she “hates” the man in the White House.
“I don’t hate anyone. So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that,” Pelosi told the reporter, insisting she is following the letter of the Constitution. “I am a Catholic and I pray for the president every day.”
Pelosi did not lay out the schedule for future hearings or give more details about the scope of the articles of impeachment.
She suggested that articles of impeachment would include a key element of Trump’s scheme: his hope to enlist foreign interference in the upcoming 2020 battle for the White House.
“The president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt, once again, the election for his own benefit,” she said, referring to the Russian campaign to help him win in 2016.
Trump, who has sought to stonewall the probe, hit back by demanding Democrats move quickly if they are going to impeach him so that the Republican-led Senate can take up the issue.
“If you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair trial in the Senate, and so that our Country can get back to business,” Trump tweeted.
The Do Nothing Democrats had a historically bad day yesterday in the House. They have no Impeachment case and are demeaning our Country. But nothing matters to them, they have gone crazy. Therefore I say, if you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair…
Democrats control the House by a healthy margin, making it all but certain that Trump will be impeached. His case will then head to the GOP-held Senate where a two-thirds vote is needed to remove Trump from office, a prospect that for now still seems highly unlikely.
Republicans have defended Trump in virtual lockstep so far, insisting that he did little wrong and certainly not enough to oust him from the White House.
They will almost certainly seek to use a Senate trial to embarrass Democratic rivals, which was Trump’s goal in the first place. The GOP may also seek to revive Trump-friendly conspiracy theories including the claim that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 vote.
One wild card is the possibility that key administration officials who have so far defied demands to testify under oath may be ordered to do so by the time of a trial in January. Fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, who famously denounced the scheme in real time as a “drug deal,” might be a particularly explosive witness.
Pelosi’s announcement may have seemed a foregone conclusion to Americans after a couple of weeks of impeachment hearings, featuring witnesses who broke ranks with Trump’s orders and laid out his scheme.
But the Speaker was keeping her ears to the ground, listening to concerns of lawmakers in districts that voted for Trump.
On Wednesday, Pelosi met behind closed doors with her Democratic caucus, asking, ”Äre you ready?”
The answer was a resounding yes, according to those in the room.
Democrats are charging toward a vote by Christmas on removing the 45th president. The chairmen of the House committees conducting the impeachment inquiries will begin drafting the articles, and some lawmakers are expected to work through the weekend.
Three leading legal scholars testified Wednesday to the House Judiciary Committee that Trump’s attempts to have Ukraine investigate Democratic rivals are grounds for impeachment, bolstering the Democrats’ case.