For Democrats, impeachment talk bubbles up again

They seize on details Mueller report revealed

WASHINGTON – A year and a half before the 2020 election, Democratic leaders have been saying President Donald Trump should be voted out of office, not depart through impeachment.

But newly revealed details in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election rekindled the impeachment talk.

“May get to that, may not,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who chairs the Judiciary Committee that would start impeachment proceedings, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Republicans, who control the Senate, remained adamantly opposed to impeachment. Even if the House voted to impeach, the Senate would need a twothirds majority to convict.

Mueller’s 448-page report detailed multiple contacts between Russian operatives and Trump associates during the 2016 campaign but said the investigation did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy. The report documented a series of actions by Trump to derail the investigation, although it did not reach a conclusion on whether he illegally sought to obstruct justice.

On Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass., became the first major presidential candidate to call for impeachment. “The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States,” she tweeted.

House Democratic leaders grappled with how to proceed.

“Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on CNN hours after the report’s release. Hours later, he tweeted that “all options ought to remain on the table.”

Here’s the dilemma for top Democrats: Do they push to impeach a president many say committed crimes? Or do they let it go and instead focus on policies they campaigned on, which helped them pick up a net 40 seats in the 2018 midterm elections?

Paul Beck, political science professor emeritus at Ohio State University, said “there’s plenty of ammunition in (the Mueller report) for an impeachment inquiry,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a smart political move to go through with it.

“Democrats need to be very, very careful about pounding the impeachment drum too much,” he said. An impeachment process could divide the party between members who come from deep blue districts and wanted the president out from day one and others who will have tough reelections in districts that voted for Trump in 2016.

Political reality means there just aren’t the votes to convict in the Senate, at least not now, he said.

Before the report’s release, in repeated interviews, including with USA TODAY, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was clear that she did not see impeachment as a strategic political move. When she was asked Friday at a news conference in Ireland whether she would support prosecuting the president, she was more vague.

“The legislative branch has a responsibility of oversight of our democracy, and we will exercise that,” she said.

Paul Beck, Ohio State University

“Democrats need to be very, very careful about pounding the impeachment drum too much.”