By Bob Brigham
The RawStory (5/20/19)
The NBC news national affairs analyst blasted Congressional Democrats on Monday for losing the battle over impeachment.
John Heilemann joined the panel on “Deadline: White House” with Nicolle Wallace, following Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) becoming the first Republican congressman to back impeachment.
Former Republican Congressman David Jolly of Florida explained how he viewed the developments.
“Justin Amash has gone further than Nancy Pelosi did. I think we need to have Nancy Pelosi explain to the American people how she understands the Mueller report and if she understands it doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment, explain that,” Jolly said. “But right now, all we’re getting is a policy argument from Nancy Pelosi and arguments fall far short of what we got from Justin Amash over the weekend.”
“All they’re doing is vacillating and prevaricating and mollifying — they’re stalling for time because they are afraid of what will happen if they lead.”
MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heileman said Democrats are “losing” on both the politics and morality of impeachment.
“There’s not a Democrat, I believe — not one — who doesn’t believe the president hasn’t committed impeachable offenses on the basis of the Mueller report,” Heilemann argued. “Not one.”
“Democrats basically say, ‘Well, the president is a bad guy, may have broken the law, the president has maybe has committed impeachable offenses but we have to get to the bottom, maybe we should impeach, maybe later we shall impeach.’ The president says ‘No collusion, no obstruction.’ He’s winning the argument because he’s strong and wrong, but he’s strong and clear,” he continued.
Get the ball rolling
“Democrats are all over the place. I have heard maybe more than a dozen Democrats say, ‘I believe the president has committed impeachable acts but we need to investigate it further’ — what? Y’all think the president broke the law … go and get the impeachment ball rolling.”
“Even if there’s political risk, strong and wrong beats weak and right,” he noted.
“I don’t think they’re wrong about this, they don’t think they’re wrong either. All they’re doing is vacillating and prevaricating and mollifying — they’re stalling for time because they are afraid of what will happen if they lead,” he said.
“If you think that guys, it’s time to go,” he concluded. “Or stand up and go ‘we’re too weak and sad and too afraid to do this’ and then shut up about it. But the middle ground place they are now is not a winning position politically and it’s not the right place for them to be morally in terms of how history is going to judge them.”
Link to Story and 5-Minute Video
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Nancy Pelosi Works To Smother Dem Calls For Impeachment
By Matt Fuller & Arthur Delaney
The HuffPost (5/22/19)
WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders assembled a closed-door, caucus-wide meeting Wednesday to attempt to convince Democrats that they don’t need to open an impeachment inquiry, and that their current approach to handling the Trump administration is already working.
“It was pretty orchestrated, which is what you’d expect,” Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said of the presentation meant to pump the brakes on an impeachment inquiry.
Many Democrats are hesitant to move forward with impeachment, and the ones who do want to open an inquiry are being thwarted by Pelosi and her allies at every turn.
“She made her argument ― and it’s an argument ― that we can ‘continue, continue, continue,’” Cohen said of Pelosi.
“And the other argument, which I think made a lot of sense, is that time is on their side,” Cohen continued, referring to the Trump administration. “And it’s not just a song.”
Pelosi didn’t say anything against starting impeachment proceedings, according to several members. But with more Democrats ― and even one Republican ― calling for starting an impeachment inquiry, and Pelosi championing the status quo approach, the implication was clear: Don’t do it. …
- AOC Says It’s Time For Nancy Pelosi To Fire Up Trump Impeachment Hearings — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday told CNN’s Manu Raju that it’s time for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to start up impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. “I trust the Speaker is taking a measured approach to ensure that we’re moving everyone forward,” she said. “Being a Speaker is hard, holding this party together is a difficult task! But I think I that we know what we need to do — I personally think that we have to move forward.” Link to Story and 45-Second Video
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Republican Justin Amash Gets What Top Democrats Don’t — It’s Time to Impeach Trump — CONGRATULATIONS TO Justin Amash! On Saturday, the representative from Michigan’s 3rd district became the first Republican member of Congress to call for impeachment, arguing that President Trump’s actions and behavior, as detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report, “meet the threshold” for high crimes and misdemeanors. Amash, who is Palestinian American and a proud Tea Party libertarian, has clashed with the president and his GOP colleagues before, on a range of issues — from the war in Yemen to funding for the border wall to the Muslim ban. But his decision to declare his open support for impeachment is far and away the most dramatic and defiant moment of his political career. Here’s the start of his tweetstorm on the Mueller report (and it’s very worth your time to read the whole thing). … Read the Rest
(Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link toe www.thecommonercall.org )