House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed beginning the impeachment of President Donald Trump, suggesting such drastic measures could work only if it were overwhelmingly bipartisan and for very high crimes.
In an interview with The Washington Post Magazine, which was published on Monday, Pelosi said impeachment is too difficult for the US to go through and that Trump is “just not worth it.”
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“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,” Pelosi told Post Magazine reporter Joe Heim. “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.”
Pelosi added that she believes Trump is unfit to be president in a variety of ways.
“Are we talking ethically? Intellectually? Politically? What are we talking here?” Pelosi asked. “All of the above. No. No. I don’t think he is,” she said. “I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity-wise unfit. No, I don’t think he’s fit to be president of the United States.”
But that does not mean Democrats should go impeaching him, Pelosi said. Instead, the two-time speaker of the House said Democrats should articulately distinguish themselves and their agenda from Trump.
“And that’s up to us to make the contrast to show that this president — while he may be appealing to you on your insecurity and therefore your xenophobia, whether it’s globalization or immigrants — is fighting clean air for your children to breathe, clean water for them drink, food safety, every good thing that we should be doing that people can’t do for themselves,” she said.
Meanwhile, House Democrats have launched a host of investigations into Trump’s administration and personal finances.
The House Judiciary Committee listed 81 individuals and organizations close to Trump that they will request documents from in the coming weeks, which one staffer described to INSIDER as an “investigative blitz.”
At the same time, other committees are probing the president, including the House Ways and Means Committee, which is preparing to request Trump’s tax returns from the Treasury Department.
And Pelosi also has to contend with insurgent Democrats looking to boost the impeachment agenda. To make things more complex, the billionaire megadonor Tom Steyer is pushing for impeachment and running grassroots campaigns in the districts of Democratic chairmen of multiple committees, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Richard Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Elijah Cummings of the House Oversight Committee.
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