San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Dems defy leaders, call for hearings to impeach
In the aftermath of Robert Mueller’s report, impeachment is turning into a major problem — for Democrats. They can’t agree on whether to pursue it.
The special counsel’s 448-page breakdown of Russian interference in the 2016 election offered detailed findings into how President Trump tried to sidetrack the investigation. Some of the Democratic Party’s most progressive members are sprinting down the path Mueller outlined, calling for impeachment proceedings after months of Democratic leaders telling them to keep quiet for fear of distracting from the party’s focus on kitchen table issues such as health care.
High-profile first-year Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and the liberal online hub MoveOn are calling for the House Judiciary Committee to convene impeachment hearings. Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters said it would be “complacency in the face of the erosion of our democracy” if Congress did not impeach Trump.
“Mueller’s report is clear in pointing to Congress’ responsibility in investigat
ing obstruction of justice by the president,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, adding that she was mindful of the “political reality” that it would be up to the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, to convict.
“Many know I take no pleasure in discussions of impeachment. I didn’t campaign on it, & rarely discuss it unprompted,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “We all prefer working on our priorities: pushing Medicare for All, tackling student loans, & a Green New Deal. But the report squarely puts this on our doorstep.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and other party leaders have urged Democrats not to obsess about Trump and to make the case for their own ideas. Underlying the advice is a fear that impeachment would boomerang on the Democrats into public sympathy for Trump, much like what happened when Republicans impeached Bill Clinton two decades ago.
“Clinton became more popular and his polls improved even as the impeachment went on because of what people saw as the Republicans’ overreach,” said Corey Cook, professor of political science and dean of the School of Public Service at Boise State University
Mueller “left a road map for how to run the 2020 election by focusing on Trump’s veracity and temperament,” Cook said. “There’s plenty of fodder there, but do Democrats really want to blow it in an impeachment effort?”
Pelosi has not diverted from her contention last month that Trump is “just not worth” impeachment. But she will lead a meeting Monday with House Democrats to discuss “this grave matter” that the report presents.
Although Pelosi has been silent on impeachment since Mueller’s report came out Thursday, it’s clear that leadership’s message hasn’t changed. Her top deputy in the House, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said that “going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point,” because “there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment.”
Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, chosen to deliver the Democrats’ weekly radio address, said Friday that “Congress’ oversight responsibilities matter.” But she added, “Our agenda — to lower prescription drug prices, to create 16 million good-paying jobs through a real infrastructure plan and to make sure that our government is working — is what Americans expect from this Congress.”
President Barack Obama’s former Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told The Chronicle that taking impeachment off the table before Mueller testifies before Congress “looks like — and is — calculated political cowardice.”
Pfeiffer conceded that a Republican Senate would probably never convict. Still, he said, “the Democrats should ask all the questions, do all the oversight, and then see where they are. Keep all the options on the table for now.”
Democrats can pursue kitchen table issues and try to force Trump from office at the same time, said David Sievers, campaign director at MoveOn.
“It’s not an either-or question,” Sievers said. “Pursuing an impeachment inquiry doesn’t mean we can’t fight Donald Trump’s efforts to build a wall. We can do both.”
Caught in the middle are the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Dismissing impeachment risks alienating some of the party’s most engaged progressives. Talking about it means focusing on Trump, not themselves.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was one of few major candidates to call immediately for impeachment, saying Trump’s actions would “inflict a great and lasting damage on this country.” Former Obama administration official Julián Castro said it would be “perfectly reasonable” for the House to consider impeachment.
Others tried to buy time by calling for Congress to hear from Mueller before deciding what to do.
“There’s definitely a conversation to be had” on impeachment, California Sen. Kamala Harris told MSNBC. “But first I want to hear from Bob Mueller and what evidence supports the summary we were given.”
Her fellow 2020 candidate Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar wouldn’t go that far, noting that as a senator, she would have to vote in an impeachment trial. “I have been really careful about talking about what we would do if impeachment came before us,” she said.
Pete Buttigieg tried to have it both ways. The mayor of South Bend, Ind., said Friday, “I’ll leave that to Congress . ... You can see lots of evidence that this president deserves to be impeached, but since I’m not in Congress, I’m working on replacing him the old-fashioned way.”
One new-fashioned way of dealing with Trump could be a House censure — a public slap on the wrist — which Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee is proposing as “a middle ground.”
“It would at least put a historical note to the fact that this man’s conduct in regard to his obstruction of justice is something that should be noted with an official resolution,” Cohen told MSNBC on Friday.
MoveOn’s Sievers said “censure is necessary, but not sufficient. Censure does not go far enough. It doesn’t have any teeth to it. We need to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t above the law.”
Billionaire San Francisco activist Tom Steyer has no ambivalence about impeachment. He’s planning to hold an impeachment town hall — his 47th such gathering — on Tuesday in Pleasanton. It’s hardly a coincidence that’s in the congressional district of Rep. Eric Swalwell, a House Judiciary Committee member and Democratic candidate for president.
“What this (Mueller) report did was say precisely what we’ve been saying for the last year,” said Steyer, whose NeedtoImpeach.org petition has gathered more than 7.8 million signatures. “It is up to Congress to hold (Trump) accountable. Put (the hearings) on TV. Show us on TV what happened. Let the American people decide.”
Swalwell said the report “describes a campaign that welcomed Russia’s interference in our democracy and a president who went to great lengths to obstruct a lawful investigation. Impeachment is the ultimate remedy for a president who abuses power. The report didn’t move us farther from that remedy, it moved us closer.”
Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer and John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com, Twitter: @joegarofoli @jfwildermuth.