Pelosi staying the course for ‘compelling’ case to impeach

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still isn’t ready to impeach President Donald Trump.

Even after special counsel Robert Mueller essentially called on Congress to pick up where his investigation left off, Pelosi isn’t budging. Scores of her Democratic lawmakers want to start impeachment proceedings. Outside groups say it’s time. But Pelosi is carrying on as she has since taking the speaker’s gavel in January, promising that the House will methodically pursue its investigations of Trump — wherever they lead.

This is Pelosi’s balancing act: toggling between mountingpressure from other Democrats and her own political instincts. She’s sticking with her plans for a more measured, “ironclad” investigation that makes it clear to Americans the choices ahead. It’s uncharted territory for the speaker and this Congress, with both high risks and possible rewards ahead of the 2020 election.

Trump declared his own challenge Thursday. He called impeachment a “dirty, filthy, disgusting word” and said courts would never allow it.

“Many constituents want to impeach the president,” Pelosi acknowledged shortly after Mueller’s remarks Wednesday. “But we want to do what is right and what gets results.”

Her calculus is political as well as practical, knowing that even if Democrats in the House have the votes to approve articles of impeachment, the Republican majority in the Senate is hardly likely to vote to convict him. Opinion polling does not favor impeachment, and a failed effort might help the president win re-election. Rather than go it alone, she is urging Democrats to build the case so the public is with them.

“Nothing is off the table,” Pelosi said, “but we do want to make such a compelling case, such an ironclad case.”

It has been this way for weeks. As more and more Democratic lawmakers — and presidential hopefuls — call for impeachment proceedings, Pelosi is urging restraint. Those around her say she’s feeling no pressure.

On Wednesday, many Democrats took Mueller’s words as an invitation to impeach. Mueller told the country, as he said in his report last month, that while charging the president with obstructing justice was “not an option” under Justice Department guidelines, he also did not exonerate Trump. Instead, he said, “the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” Without saying the word, Mueller was pointing to impeachment.

On Thursday, more Democrats joined the call for impeachment proceedings, including Rep. Greg Stanton, a freshman from Arizona who said, “This conclusion will be unpopular with some, but it is the right thing to do.”