Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California 12th District), the House minority leader and likely Speaker in the upcoming 116th Congress, said that they don’t need an indictment from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to impeach President Donald Trump.
“Recognize one point,” Pelosi told Atlantic staff writer Edward Isaac Dovere in a report published Sunday. “What Mueller might not think is indictable could be impeachable.”
Dems are set to command a majority of at least 227 seats come January, and they’d need a simple majority to impeach. Easy enough, assuming a party-line vote. Removal, however, requires a two-thirds vote by the Senate. The GOP are expected to maintain a 51-seat majority, and may get more.
Pelosi, who has gone on the record opposing previous impeachment efforts against Trump, said in the article that she is looking for evidence so indisputable that even Republicans would join impeachment efforts. But for now, she said, there’s not enough to go on. For example, it’s not enough to pursue impeachment for Trump firing Jeff Sessions and replacing him with Matt Whitaker, who has lambasted the Mueller probe.
Pelosi called it “perilously close to a constitutional crisis,” but added, “You have to have evidence, evidence of the connection. Everything’s about the connection.”
Then there’s the matter of whether she will actually get to be Speaker, and command enough clout among to Dems to influence their hypothetical impeachment efforts. She voiced confidence her colleagues will vote her in, but the article also examined internal opposition to her leadership as minority leader. It also examined the possibility that impeachment efforts may blow-back on the Dems politically.
Another top Dem, presumptive House Judicatory Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York 10th District), said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that they are “far” from impeachment.
[Image via Zach Gibson/Getty Images]
