House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said former special counsel Robert Mueller “confirmed” that President Trump committed a crime, but she said she’s still not ready to go ahead with impeachment yet, saying more work needs to be done to improve the case.
She specifically pointed to the need to delve into Mr. Trump’s finances, which earlier this week she said could expose the motives behind what she saw as his criminal behavior.
And the California Democrat, who sat down earlier Friday with occasional critic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said there’s no need to bury a hatchet, saying they both expressed respect for each other.
“In a family you have differences, but you’re still family,” she said. “We just had a meeting to clear the air.”
She called the divisions between herself and the freshman Democrat “minor,” though she wouldn’t go into what those differences were.
Mrs. Pelosi did, though, dismiss complaints about lack of unity among Democrats, pointing to Thursdays’ vote on a budget bill to raise spending, where 219 Democrats were in favor, while Republicans were deeply divided, defying Mr. Trump’s entreaties to back the bill.
“I consider myself a weaver, just at the loom, just making all those threads come together in the boldest possible way,” she said.
The biggest area of division for Mrs. Pelosi’s Democrats remains impeachment.
The drumbeat to take the first steps on that path continues to grow within her caucus, but she signaled Friday she’s not there — yet.
When confronted with some liberal complaints that she’s waiting too long to pull the trigger, and may squander the chance, she bristled.
“I’m not trying to run out the clock,” she said. “We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed. Not one day sooner.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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