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.
Watch: Trump Calls Slotkin ‘Lowlife’ for Plan to Terrorize, Deter Future Conservatives With the Threat of Legal Punishment
Watch: Dem Sen So Radically Ignorant on Iran That CNN Has to Educate Him – So Bad, CNN Even Takes Trump’s Side
JD Vance declines to endorse Netanyahu despite Trump’s strong backing
Judge walks back ‘untenable’ order against Trump DOJ after tense DC golf course hearing
‘Changes the balance of leverage’: Zelensky tries to hold on as Trump pressures him to concede
Mahmoud Khalil asks Supreme Court to hear deportation case
LISTEN: Kansas soccer field dispatch call captures mass-casualty response after driver kills boy, man
Netflix Bloodbath Continues – Company Fires Film Chief
Report: Posts from Talarico’s Adoptive Dad Unearthed – Show ‘Best Man’ Dem Knows Joked About Christ and Degenerate Different Way to Kill Him
Kansas man mapped rooftops near Trump speech site, threatened to shoot president: DOJ
Media Learns Would-Be Shooter Is Trans, Immediately Starts Using Biological Pronouns to Hide Trans ID, Blaming Men Instead
Repeat offender accused of shooting National Guard member has lengthy history with the law, records show
Former OJ Simpson attorney, longtime friend both support possibility of accomplice in 1994 murders
Trump renews push to rename New Mexico ‘New America,’ touts higher home values and incomes
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Pulled for Season, Doctors Find Multiple Blood Clots in His Lungs
…
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:
Watch: Trump Calls Slotkin ‘Lowlife’ for Plan to Terrorize, Deter Future Conservatives With the Threat of Legal Punishment
Watch: Dem Sen So Radically Ignorant on Iran That CNN Has to Educate Him – So Bad, CNN Even Takes Trump’s Side
JD Vance declines to endorse Netanyahu despite Trump’s strong backing
Judge walks back ‘untenable’ order against Trump DOJ after tense DC golf course hearing
‘Changes the balance of leverage’: Zelensky tries to hold on as Trump pressures him to concede
Mahmoud Khalil asks Supreme Court to hear deportation case
LISTEN: Kansas soccer field dispatch call captures mass-casualty response after driver kills boy, man
Netflix Bloodbath Continues – Company Fires Film Chief
Report: Posts from Talarico’s Adoptive Dad Unearthed – Show ‘Best Man’ Dem Knows Joked About Christ and Degenerate Different Way to Kill Him
Kansas man mapped rooftops near Trump speech site, threatened to shoot president: DOJ
Media Learns Would-Be Shooter Is Trans, Immediately Starts Using Biological Pronouns to Hide Trans ID, Blaming Men Instead
Repeat offender accused of shooting National Guard member has lengthy history with the law, records show
Former OJ Simpson attorney, longtime friend both support possibility of accomplice in 1994 murders
Trump renews push to rename New Mexico ‘New America,’ touts higher home values and incomes
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Pulled for Season, Doctors Find Multiple Blood Clots in His Lungs
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.
