The Speaker of the House has used every tool in her toolbox to slow-roll the rising tide of support for impeachment in the US House and the vast American citizenry, since Trump was seated in early 2017.
She hasn’t done it to kill the momentum, much to the contrary thinking of many people in the Democratic Base. She’s done it to stem the tide from rising too soon and leaving only a failed Senate affirmation so early that it would leave Donald J Trump with a winning message for 2020 of
I was always 100% innocent of the Witch Hunt impeachment!
FOUR MORE YEARS!
Because she is neither naive or late to the game of national politics in America.
Many people, including myself, had great hopes for the results of the Mueller investigation to give the Speaker the tinder to light a massive impeachment fire. Alas, Robert Mueller could not provide what was beyond the scope of his mission: to investigate the alleged connections between Russia and the Trump campaign leading up to and possibly beyond the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller found plenty of criminality in his search for justice.
What he did NOT give the American people was an actionable Criminal Indictment of Donald J Trump for Obstruction of Justice or any other crimes. Why not? We learned why not two days ago, when Mueller gave an impromptu Press address, and told the world that when he took the Special Prosecutor’s job, he did it knowing full well that he would never be able to end his investigation with a finding of an Indictment of the president for any crime(s).
x xYouTube VideoWhy not? That damned Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo from the Watergate era.
A Sitting President’s Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution
The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions October 16, 2000
Go read the entire memo, it’s an eye-opener; it’s also the bedrock upon which Mueller rested his available choices in how to proceed in his solemn Duty during his stint as Special Counsel.
This was a 2000 re-analysis of the 1973 Memo created by Robert G. Dixon, Jr. then, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel.
In 1973, the Department concluded that the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions. We have been asked to summarize and review the analysis provided in support of that conclusion, and to consider whether any subsequent developments in the law lead us today to reconsider and modify or disavow that determination.1 We believe that the conclusion reached by the Department in 1973 still represents the best interpretation of the Constitution
Would it have been better if Mueller had begun his investigation by letting the nation know in advance that no indictments of President Trump would be part of the results of any such investigation, regardless of what Mueller found as evidence of any crime committed by the president? Yes, unequivocally. However that is not what happened.
Was Speaker Pelosi aware of this from the beginning? I am beginning to think that she was.
Remember that of all the voices talking up the #MuellerIsComing memes and inciting energy on the Left in anticipation about the end result of the Mueller investigations — Nancy Pelosi’s voice was not one of them. Point of fact, the Speaker took every opportunity to wind down any such excitement. It pissed off a lot of the progressives and the Democratic Base to no end. No one could understand why Pelosi didn’t seem to want to get on-board with the rest of the Left, to get ready to bring the pain to Trump the day Mueller’s investigation was over with the impeaching of a President with a criminal indictment hanging over his grizzled facade and fake-blonde hair.
It surely seems, in hindsight, that she knew all along what was going to happen at the end of the Mueller Investigation.
Many people surrounding Trump would be found to have had connections with the Russians and be indicted or make a deal and plead guilty. But Trump himself would escape any such findings. His Justice would only be found in an impeachment trial.
Therein lay the danger zone, for Speaker Pelosi. Because without an indictment from the Special Counsel, after months or years of investigation, how could she take an impeachment charge to the House and then see it fail miserably in the US Senate (run by the Iron Fist of the Senate Majority Leader in the person of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky)? Wouldn’t THAT just be a present to McConnell and Trump leading into the 2020 elections?
What a conundrum of historic proportions!
Which leads up to today. Speaker Pelosi has been saying for the past couple of months; since the Mueller Report was sent to the current US Attorney General, William Barr; that the only path to an impeachment of Donald Trump lay upon a base of Evidence so compelling that even the Republicans in the US Senate would have to vote “AYE” and affirm a House impeachment. To do otherwise would only hand a cudgel to Trump and McConnell with which to beat the Democrats up over the waning days of the 2020 campaign — and sink the chances that any Democratic nominee could win the seat and depose the corrupt man who sits in the Oval Office like a menacing ogre.
I’ve been in agreement with her, for the most part. Until two days ago.
The response to #Muellers8Minutes has been nothing short of remarkable. Democratic members of the House and others have publicly added their voices in support of beginning an Impeachment Inquiry, and to do so now.
Such an inquiry would be the first step PRIOR to the stages of the impeachment process in this chart. It would likely take place within the House Judiciary Cmte under Rep Jerry Nadler. It would be a preliminary hearing and investigation into whether or not the House SHOULD take up a full impeachment, write Articles of Impeachment and hold a vote in the Judiciary Cmte on whether to forward it to the full House for a Floor Debate and Vote.
I suggest that Speaker Pelosi not wait much longer, that the building calls for impeachment will only rise for a certain amount of time — and if she waits too long, those calls will turn from demanding the House fulfill it’s Duty to the Constitution and the People and impeach the president to calls for HER to resign for failing in her Duty and Oath:
“I, Nancy Pelosi, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
So don’t wait too much longer to get the ball rolling, Speaker. Use the rising tide of public statements beginning with #Muellers8Minutes and including a number of the Democratic Party candidates for president in 2020, like
xMueller’s statement makes clear what those who have read his report know: It is an impeachment referral, and it’s up to Congress to act. They should.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 29, 2019 xWhat Robert Mueller basically did was return an impeachment referral. Now it is up to Congress to hold this president accountable.We need to start impeachment proceedings. It's our constitutional obligation.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 29, 2019 xRobert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 29, 2019 xIt's time for Congress to begin impeachment hearings and follow the facts. Robert Mueller clearly expects Congress to exercise its constitutional authority and take steps that he could not. We can't let the president defy basic accountability measures built into our Constitution.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) May 29, 2019 xMueller did his job. Now it’s time to do ours. Impeachment hearings should begin tomorrow. https://t.co/9za3s0pqOA
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) May 29, 2019 xNEW: @JoeBiden campaign statement on Mueller - "We know beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump asked for help from the Russians. He got it. He used it." Adds, Congress should "continue to investigate." @CBSNewspic.twitter.com/Cjeh2FkpeH
— Bo Erickson (@BoKnowsNews) May 29, 2019 xGiven the reality that we have a president who believes he is above the law, Congress must continue its investigations. If the House Judiciary Committee deems it necessary, I will support their decision to open an impeachment inquiry. https://t.co/6lTVdcaTXc
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 29, 2019USE these voices, Speaker Pelosi. Turn the screw of the “silver lining’ message and turn it into a 2020 message to the Republicans in the US Senate — the 22 of them up for re-election next year, including the 2nd most dangerous man in America, Mitch McConnell.
Tell the people and the nation that it’s time to begin the process to discover whether or not the president should be removed from Office — and say it that way. Do NOT call it impeachment in public anymore. Call it the morally right thing to do when the nation is presented with a corrupt man in the highest Office in the land; that the Congress has not just the ability but the DUTY to remove such a president from Office to protect and defend the Constitution and the Republic which it makes possible.
Because if there is one thing I’ve learned in the 30 years I’ve been following national politics in These United States — the people do not have a long attention span and if you want to WIN the messaging war you must start with the Message you intend to win on:
The Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, spoke to the nation and gave us a clear message, that the only Justice for an American President who acts contrary to the Rule of Law is for Congress to impeach that president.
We must REMOVE THE PRESIDENT, he is a clear and present danger to the Constitution and the Republic. The first step is a US House impeachment inquiry and we will be taking that first step in June 2019.
- Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi
Do this, Madame Speaker, and allow the House to begin this most public process and let it play out over the next year and the only silver lining will be that the end of the Trump presidency will be a lot more likely. Bet on it.
NOTICE: be assured this is NOT a quote from the Speaker of the House, although it might be in the near future.