Some House Democrats are privately calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to hold a vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry to undermine Republican criticism that the process is illegitimate, Politico reported this week.
So far, Pelosi has refused to schedule a vote, arguing that the Constitution and House rules do not require the lawmakers to do so.
Meanwhile, the White House and its Republican congressional allies contend that such a vote is necessary to legitimize the inquiry per the recognized standards of previous impeachment efforts.
Politico reported:
Some Democratic lawmakers and aides have begun to say privately — and, to a lesser extent, publicly — that the House should just vote to formalize the inquiry, robbing the GOP of its main talking point.
Swing-state’s fraud reckoning raises Minnesota-style alarm as wild schemes exposed
Mundane DOJ Memo on Post Office Gun Bans Is Actually Bigger Deal Than You Think
Americans clash over transgender athletes as debate heats up: ‘Just getting outrageous’
Routine California traffic stop leads to seizure of 30 pounds of cocaine worth more than $800K
New Report Says Chinese Cameras Used in Naval Assets Secretly Sent Data to Communist Country
Alaska runner hospitalized after using bear spray to fight off brown bear on Alaska trail
Nevada man funneled 140 guns to violent Mexican drug cartels, including powerful ‘military-style’ rifles: DOJ
Ex-detective who served fraction of 102-year sentence faces new charges after cold case review
Judge Keeps Major Biden Admin Gun Rule On Ice
Fauci refuses Senate appearance after invoking Fifth Amendment more than 100 times in COVID probe
America Found A Rare Metal It Desperately Needs. Red Tape Could Keep It In The Ground For Ages
Trump backs Republican challenger to oust Letitia James amid ongoing mortgage fraud feud
Watch: It’s Been Banned a Million Times, But Now the Video That Exposed How ‘Queerness’ and Pedophilia Go Hand-in-Hand Is Online for Good
Bernie-backed California House candidate called DEI a ‘social justice-driven duty,’ embraced activist role
Advocate reveals freed Marine vet’s physical, mental torment in Russian prison as 5 Americans remain held
…
Though a small but growing chorus of Democrats has started urging a vote simply to undercut this GOP talking point, others say that nothing will stop Trump and his supporters from claiming Democrats’ efforts are unfair and inconsistent with past impeachment procedures. They say the party shouldn’t take the White House’s bait, arguing that the president’s defenders will simply find other reasons to not comply with the inquiry.
The “private” debate on whether or not to hold a vote “is threatening to cleave Democrats’ unified front” in favor of impeachment, the news outlet added.
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) publicly called for a vote, telling Politico,“If Nancy asked me, I would say sure, let’s have a vote. Everybody’s on record, so they’re not going to vote any differently. What’s the danger in having a vote to formalize it?”
House lawmakers voted to allow an investigation into whether to impeach President Bill Clinton and President Richard Nixon. Republicans have pointed to those votes as evidence that Democrats are acting in an unfair and illegitimate manner.
Politico noted:
Swing-state’s fraud reckoning raises Minnesota-style alarm as wild schemes exposed
Mundane DOJ Memo on Post Office Gun Bans Is Actually Bigger Deal Than You Think
Americans clash over transgender athletes as debate heats up: ‘Just getting outrageous’
Routine California traffic stop leads to seizure of 30 pounds of cocaine worth more than $800K
New Report Says Chinese Cameras Used in Naval Assets Secretly Sent Data to Communist Country
Alaska runner hospitalized after using bear spray to fight off brown bear on Alaska trail
Nevada man funneled 140 guns to violent Mexican drug cartels, including powerful ‘military-style’ rifles: DOJ
Ex-detective who served fraction of 102-year sentence faces new charges after cold case review
Judge Keeps Major Biden Admin Gun Rule On Ice
Fauci refuses Senate appearance after invoking Fifth Amendment more than 100 times in COVID probe
America Found A Rare Metal It Desperately Needs. Red Tape Could Keep It In The Ground For Ages
Trump backs Republican challenger to oust Letitia James amid ongoing mortgage fraud feud
Watch: It’s Been Banned a Million Times, But Now the Video That Exposed How ‘Queerness’ and Pedophilia Go Hand-in-Hand Is Online for Good
Bernie-backed California House candidate called DEI a ‘social justice-driven duty,’ embraced activist role
Advocate reveals freed Marine vet’s physical, mental torment in Russian prison as 5 Americans remain held
Democrats have long argued that they don’t need a vote to launch formal impeachment proceedings, even if that had been the practice in prior presidential impeachment processes. In fact, House lawyers backed by Pelosi have made that argument in a succession of court cases seeking evidence to support their impeachment inquiry, and proponents of that position worry a formal vote would undercut their legal claims.
Similarly, Democrats are worried that a near-term floor vote would drive away a handful of Republicans who are wavering over whether to support impeachment proceedings. A party-line vote would hand the White House another talking point, they argue: that impeachment is a purely partisan effort by Democrats.
In a letter to Pelosi and the House chairmen pursuing the impeachment inquiry, the White House said the Democrats were conducting a “constitutionally invalid” and “illegitimate” impeachment probe that absolves lawmakers of “taking political accountability.”
The White House said it would not cooperate with the ongoing “partisan” impeachment investigation. Although the letter stopped short of explicitly calling on Pelosi to hold a vote, it all but dared the Speaker to do so.
Most of the 235 members of the House Democratic Caucus support the impeachment probe, but there are still eight who did not, as of Thursday afternoon, a tally from the New York Times revealed.
Story cited here.
