House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she’s skeptical of impeachment proceedings. Her party’s field of 2020 presidential candidates is about to increase the pressure on her to change her mind.
Rep. Eric Swalwell became the latest White House hopeful to signal he is open to impeachment of President Trump, joining more strident calls from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala D. Harris and former Obama Cabinet Secretary Julian Castro, who say it’s time for Congress to use the ultimate tool of political retribution against the president.
Those presidential contenders are about to dominate the airwaves, seeking strident anti-Trump positions as they jockey for the love of liberal primary voters. That’s working at cross-purposes for Mrs. Pelosi, who has counseled restraint as she works to keep her House majority.
“Speaker Pelosi understands that change comes from winning in the fall,” said Jeff Link, an Iowa-based Democratic strategist. “The candidates who are fanning the flames for impeachment are trying to fund and win a Democratic primary. They are two very different goals.”
The latest Politico/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday found nearly 60% of Democratic voters believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump.
Yet overall, just 34% of voters wanted to see impeachment, suggesting the Democratic electorate’s wishes are out of touch with most Americans.
“If voters perceive Democrats as being singularly focused on impeaching President Trump, then they narrow their appeal as a party,” said Nathan L. Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections, a nonpartisan campaign tracker.
Democrats are defending at least 18 vulnerable seats in 2020, Mr. Gonzales says, and the candidates who won those races in 2018 did so by steering clear of making the election about Mr. Trump.
Mrs. Pelosi has again urged caution on focusing on the president, saying her troops should run on basic issues such as jobs and the cost of health care.
“I do believe that impeachment is one of the most divisive paths that we could go down to in our country, but if the fact-finding takes us there we have no choice, but we are not there yet,” she said at a Time forum Tuesday.
She also pushed back on the notion that a groundswell is developing.
“I don’t think there is big division in our caucus about this,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “There are some people who are more eager for impeachment, many more eager to just follow the investigation.”
Skip Cleaver, chairman of the Nashua New Hampshire Democrats, said some activists there want to leave impeachment on the back burner, others are open to the idea but want more congressional investigations first, and others want to see the impeachment fuse lit immediately.
Mr. Cleaver said the pro-impeachment folks have gained momentum since last week’s release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“I think there is an inclination to go that way right away, and people are sort of like, ’It is our constitutional duty to do so,’ no matter what the chances are in the Senate,” Mr. Cleaver said. “So that is a change over the last couple of weeks.”
That, he said, is fueling the 2020 candidates.
“They are listening to people in these town halls and houses and so on and so forth and they reflect what the people are telling them pretty much,” he said.
Ms. Warren has perhaps been the most vocal advocate.
“This is about what kind of democracy we have,” she said Monday in a town hall aired on CNN. “In a dictatorship, everything in government revolves around protecting the one person at the center, but not in our democracy and not under our Constitution.”
Ms. Harris also backed impeachment for the first time, while acknowledging that the effort would likely die in the Senate.
Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont said he is concerned the calls to impeach Trump could drown out the debate over health care, the minimum wage and combating climate change.
“What I worry about is that works to Trump’s advantage,” Mr. Sanders said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Castro dismissed those concerns, telling BuzzFeed the party should be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time.”
“There is a difference of opinion among some of the candidates and certainly up in Congress, I know that they are kind of tying themselves in knots right now about what they should do, but to me it is clear that you’ve had a president who has tried to break the law and he’s done it in ways that we haven’t seen in a very long time,” Mr. Castro said.
Articles of impeachment would have a good chance of surviving the Democrat-controlled House, where they can be passed with a simple majority.
But they would then be tried in the Republican-controlled Senate, where it takes two-thirds vote to convict and remove the president.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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