Pelosi Tells Lawmakers to Prepare for Action on Trump
By Billy House
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers to be “prepared to return to Washington” this week, suggesting she is considering impeachment or another formal response to President Donald Trump’s encouragement of supporters who attacked the Capitol.
In a letter to fellow Democrats, Pelosi stopped short of saying she intended to move forward with impeachment or another process aimed at removing Trump from office before his term expires on Jan. 20, yet she insisted that he be held responsible in some fashion.
“It is absolutely essential that those who perpetrated the assault on our democracy be held accountable,” she said in the letter released late Saturday. “There must be a recognition that this desecration was instigated by the president.”
Pelosi has called on Trump to resign over Wednesday’s violent storming of the Capitol and raised the prospect of impeachment unless he leaves office immediately. Five people died in the attack, including a police officer, after Trump supporters broke through security barriers and rampaged through the building, forcing lawmakers to evacuate while they were counting Electoral College votes.
Yet the House speaker is moving cautiously even as she faces pressure from angry Democrats to impeach Trump for a second time. President-elect Joe Biden has made it clear he wants the party to focus on his agenda and fighting the coronavirus rather that pursuing another impeachment.
A group of House Republicans who voted to accept Biden’s Electoral College victory asked him to persuade Pelosi to back off impeaching Trump. The lawmakers, led by Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, warned in a letter to the president-elect on Saturday that impeachment would inflame Trump’s supporters and damage Biden’s efforts to unify the country.
Pelosi said in her letter that she’ll continue to meet with lawmakers and Constitutional experts, but added, “I urge you to be prepared to return to Washington this week.” On Friday, she said that she had told the Rules Committee to be ready to move forward with an impeachment case, but stopped short of saying it would be brought for a vote.
