Nancy Pelosi Finally Moves on Impeachment
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally came out in favor of impeaching Donald Trump. Or, more specifically, she announced an official impeachment inquiry, as more and more Democrats come out in support of impeaching the president.
"The president must be held accountable," she said. "No one is above the law."
As recently as May of this year, Pelosi was dismissing calls to open impeach hearings against Trump, claiming instead that he was "becoming self-impeachable in terms of some of the things that he is doing." But she reportedly started moving toward impeach hearings after a whistleblower report went public accusing Trump of pressuring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a political rival. Trump reportedly asked Zelensky to open a corruption investigation against the Ukrainian business interests of Hunter Biden, son of former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
That story broke late last week, and over the weekend Pelosi reportedly began coordinating with chair of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff and reaching out to members of her caucus to test their appetite for impeachment. As of Tuesday, 174 Democrats support impeachment, with more expected to join. Jonathan Martin, national political correspondent for the New York Times, noted on Twitter that this entire process has been happening in the reverse of usual House votes, saying "there is NO whipping from leadership, it’s rank and file members coordinating w one another, swallowing and stepping out there."
"This is a violation of law," Pelosi said during the announcement. "The law is unequivocal."
Democrats are ceding legitimacy to Trump’s claims of exoneration by giving him a pass.
Originally Appeared on GQ
