Dems tread cautiously with impeachment talk
Freshmen might hold the key in divided House
Lisa Mascaro, Mike Catalini, Denise Lavoie and David Eggert
WASHINGTON – Freshman Democratic Rep. Andy Kim came face to face with impeachment fervor at a town hall in New Jersey.
“Do your job!” one voter shouted.
At a town hall in Michigan, a woman held up a copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and told freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin she hoped she would “be the person that puts us over the top to start an impeachment inquiry.”
In Virginia, newcomer Rep. Abigail Spanberger encountered voters with questions, if not resolve, about impeaching President Donald Trump.
“I don’t have blood dripping from my fangs for or against impeachment,” said David Sussan, 70, a retired postal inspector from Chesterfield. “I just want the truth to come out.”
These freshman lawmakers and others like them will likely decide when, if ever, House Democrats start formal efforts to impeach the president.
None of the three supports impeachment. But with half the House Democrats now in favor of beginning an inquiry, the pressure will only mount on the holdouts to reach a tipping point.
With lawmakers returning home to voters during the August recess, what happens next may prove pivotal.
The pro-impeachment group Need to Impeach is running television ads. Along with activists from other groups, it’s fanning out to congressional districts to push lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to move more swiftly toward impeachment prothe ceedings.
Kevin Mack, the organization’s lead strategist, said his counsel to lawmakers, especially those new freshmen who took over formerly Republican-held seats, is to ignore the campaign consultants and party strategists and “do what you think is right” about Trump.
“You can’t really make the argument he’s the most corrupt president in American history and not hold him accountable,” he said. “Either you think what he’s doing is OK or you hold him accountable.”
For lawmakers, though, the calculus is not so simple. Voters in many of these districts helped elect Trump in 2016, but flipped to give Democrats control of the House in last year’s election. Many of first-term Democrats already face challengers for 2020 and are trying to balance the divergent views in their districts. While some voters want impeachment, others have different priorities.
New Jersey lawmaker Kim told about 80 voters at a town hall in Riverside to remain even-keeled and to trust in the investigative process that House Democrats are pursuing.
“I don’t think getting caught up in the knife fighting and name calling is going help us get out of this pit,” Kim said.
That caused some from the crowd to retort that pursuing impeachment wasn’t “knife fighting,” but is part of the Constitution.