House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Monday that impeachment of President Trump is “imperative,” but the caucus isn’t ready to move forward on a vote.
In an interview with WNYC-FM, Mr. Nadler made his strongest comments yet in support of impeachment, a topic of which most of the senior Democratic leadership is steering clear.
“My personal opinion, impeachment is imperative, not because he’ll be removed from office — the Senate won’t do that,” he said. “Because we have to vindicate the Constitution.”
While the chairman believes there is already enough evidence to file articles of impeachment against President Trump, he said his committee needs to continue to hold hearings in order to sway the American public and avoid appearing “undemocratic.”
“We have to have much greater consensus on impeachment than we do now in order to vote,” he said, noting that without public support, the effort will fail.
Despite a surge of lawmakers coming forward over the summer break in support of an impeachment investigation, public opinion hasn’t changed.
A poll by Monmouth University last month found that 59 percent of the general public doesn’t support impeachment and 51 percent said the judiciary committee shouldn’t conduct an impeachment inquiry.
The party itself appears to be divided on its approach to impeachment as well.
Several Democrats have offered various descriptions of what the committee is doing with their investigation.
Rep. Max Rose, a Democrat from a conservative district in New York, penned an op-ed this weekend arguing against pursuing a “partisan impeachment process.”
Mr. Nadler, however, has grown frustrated with the media for saying there’s confusion on what the committee is up to. He argued that “impeachment investigation” is just a shorthand term for an investigation into whether to proceed with articles of impeachment.
“What is incorrect is when you said we are not involved in an impeachment inquiry,” he said. “I have said this in very certain terms, as many times as I can, as definitely as I can now.”
The first “impeachment hearing,” as Mr. Nadler described it, will take place Tuesday, featuring former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, has notably avoided using that phrase to describe the investigation.
She told reporters last week that impeachment is divisive, and said six committees still have work to do before on the investigations they’ve been conducting for months before a decision can be reached.
“I stand by what we have been doing all along. I support what is happening in the judiciary committee because that enables them to do their process of interrogation and their investigation. And I salute them for that work,” Mrs. Pelosi said.
“That’s all I’m going to way on the subject and there’s nothing different from one day to the next,” she added.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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