Pelosi Breaks from Dems, Makes Shock Announcement Against Trump Impeachment: 'Not Worth It'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during an interview on Monday that she is against impeaching President Donald Trump, unless something “compelling and overwhelming” comes to light.
“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 The Washington Post (behind a paywall).
“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,” she went on to explain. “And he’s just not worth it,”
The Post also asked the speaker if she thought Trump was fit to serve as president.
“Are we talking ethically? Intellectually? Politically? What are we talking here?” Pelosi asked.
In all those ways, the news outlet wanted to know.
“No. No. I don’t think he is,” said Pelosi. “I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity-wise unfit. No, I don’t think he’s fit to be president of the United States.”
Pelosi elaborated in a way that brought up echoes of Hillary Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” comments about Trump supporters.
“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 to drink, food safety, every good thing that we should be doing that people can’t do for themselves.”
CNN political analyst Amanda Carpenter responded to Pelosi’s stance against impeachment saying, “The sound you hear right now is people at the (Republican National Committee) doing the happy dance on their tables.
“They can say, ‘Look even the House speaker is not for impeachment.’”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just said she is not for impeachment because President Trump is “just not worth it.”
“The sound you hear right now is people at the RNC doing the happy dance on their tables,” @amandacarpenter says https://t.co/H9pn0WD0F6 pic.twitter.com/WraDUeGl4Y
— CNN (@CNN) March 11, 2019
Carpenter, a former top aide to GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and an outspoken critic of the president, further contended it would be far more feasible for the Democrats to defeat Trump in 2020 than to impeach him.
“What is easier for the Democrats to do, actually impeach and remove the president or to go flip a couple tens of thousands of votes in the Midwest?” Carpenter asked. “It’s far easier to make this an election issue than a legislative one in the House.”
“Just looking at the calendar. Right now, it’s March 2019,” she added. “We have an election in November 2020. The amount of time it would take to actually hold the investigations, have the subpoenas, have the hearings and get the votes. There’s just not enough time on the clock.”
In 2017, while the Republicans still controlled the House, Pelosi and then-House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer also voiced their opposition to impeachment, arguing the time was not right.
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