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.
DOJ Declares it Will No Longer Enforce Two Gun-Control Statutes That Are ‘Inconsistent with the Second Amendment’
Would-Be Robber Finds Out the Hard Way That He Picked the Wrong Victim: Two Shots Later He Was in the ER
Unsealed FBI interviews reveal Obama, Emanuel’s discussions about Blagojevich Senate seat deal
Trump declares victory in historic deal with Greenland as he secures ‘permanent’ US military rights
FAA advances Trump’s ‘Triumphal Arch’ after review finds height doesn’t pose safety hazard to planes
Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Trump bashing, chilled speech and a major saga renewed
Internet Detectives Are Convinced an Innocuous Converse Sneaker Ad Is Full of White Supremacist Dog Whistles
Hasan Piker calls Bin Laden a ‘spoiled brat,’ labels 9/11 ‘blowback’ in Axios interview
Watch: ‘CBS Mornings’ Suddenly Heaps Praise on Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror in Light of New Developments
Foreign hackers breach two more US water utilities, threaten safety of Colorado residents
Illegal immigrant arrested in Indiana for allegedly voting in federal election: DHS
Federal ban on handgun sales for young adults cannot be enforced, DOJ finds
EU floats even more ‘associate members’ as diplomats dismiss vague proposal as ‘middle power bulls***’
El Sayed says he and Harris have ‘come together’ after Biden administration’s struggle with pro-Palestinian wing
New Netflix Kids Movie Slammed as ‘One of the Most Satanic Inversions’
…
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:
DOJ Declares it Will No Longer Enforce Two Gun-Control Statutes That Are ‘Inconsistent with the Second Amendment’
Would-Be Robber Finds Out the Hard Way That He Picked the Wrong Victim: Two Shots Later He Was in the ER
Unsealed FBI interviews reveal Obama, Emanuel’s discussions about Blagojevich Senate seat deal
Trump declares victory in historic deal with Greenland as he secures ‘permanent’ US military rights
FAA advances Trump’s ‘Triumphal Arch’ after review finds height doesn’t pose safety hazard to planes
Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Trump bashing, chilled speech and a major saga renewed
Internet Detectives Are Convinced an Innocuous Converse Sneaker Ad Is Full of White Supremacist Dog Whistles
Hasan Piker calls Bin Laden a ‘spoiled brat,’ labels 9/11 ‘blowback’ in Axios interview
Watch: ‘CBS Mornings’ Suddenly Heaps Praise on Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror in Light of New Developments
Foreign hackers breach two more US water utilities, threaten safety of Colorado residents
Illegal immigrant arrested in Indiana for allegedly voting in federal election: DHS
Federal ban on handgun sales for young adults cannot be enforced, DOJ finds
EU floats even more ‘associate members’ as diplomats dismiss vague proposal as ‘middle power bulls***’
El Sayed says he and Harris have ‘come together’ after Biden administration’s struggle with pro-Palestinian wing
New Netflix Kids Movie Slammed as ‘One of the Most Satanic Inversions’
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.
