House

Pelosi: Dems may get to impeachment, but ‘we’re not there yet’

by Cristina Marcos - 04/23/19 5:20 PM ET

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday didn’t rule out the possibility of impeaching President Trump while stressing that House Democrats should focus on pursuing their investigations.

Pelosi reiterated the message she gave to her caucus this week: We’re not ready for impeachment yet.

{mosads}”I do believe that impeachment is one of the most divisive forces, paths that we could go down to in our country. But if the facts, the path of fact-finding takes us there, we have no choice. But we’re not there yet,” Pelosi said at the Time 100 Summit.

“It may be a place that the facts take us. We shouldn’t impeach for a political reason, and we shouldn’t not impeach for a political reason,” Pelosi added.

Some Democrats have joined calls to impeach Trump in light of the findings revealed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report outlining instances in which the president may have obstructed justice.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), both presidential candidates, have said in recent days that they think Trump should be impeached.

Some House Democrats, including progressive freshman Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) have also called for impeachment in recent days.

During a roughly 90-minute conference call with House Democrats on Monday, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a Judiciary Committee member who hadn’t previously been vocal about impeachment, said, “I think we have enough” to move forward, according to a source on the call.

When asked if it was a growing number, Pelosi replied, “You would think so, [given] how it’s amplified. I don’t think it’s a growing number.”

“Some people are more eager for impeachment. Many more [are] eager to just follow the investigation,” Pelosi said, noting that more than half the caucus sits on the six committees of jurisdiction investigating Trump.

In the meantime, Pelosi said Democrats will focus on their policy agenda, including areas where they could find bipartisan compromise with Trump. Pelosi said she plans to meet with Trump next week to discuss infrastructure legislation.

“We’ll be meeting with the president next week when we come back to talk about what the prospect is for the size in terms of resources and scope of what that might be,” Pelosi said.