House progressive: Pelosi ‘has it right’ on impeachment

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a leading House progressive, voiced support Tuesday for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) handling of calls to impeach President Trump, with the Democratic leader opting to have committees conduct oversight investigations into the administration.

“I think that she has it right. We have to build a case, we need to have witnesses come before Congress and most importantly we have to show the American people that we’re doing things to improve their lives and trying to find some common ground to get things done,” Khanna said on Fox News.

“What she is saying is Congress needs to do its oversight functions, we need to have the committees investigate where there has been misconduct,” he continued. “She’s talking about rigorous government oversight, not making it about an impeachment of this president.”

.@HouseDemocrats are pursuing bills that will improve people’s lives. I support @SpeakerPelosi’s efforts to complete our rigorous oversight of the president and focus on delivering on infrastructure, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and health care for Americans. pic.twitter.com/exs7KKKzFT

— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) May 21, 2019

Calls for impeachment have neared a fever pitch among House Democrats as the White House continues to defy subpoenas for current and former administration officials to testify and provide documents to a slate of panels conducting oversight probes.

{mosads}“We are intimately familiar with the president’s aggressive obstruction of the congressional fact-finding function,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday. “So most of us have been led to the position that an impeachment inquiry is warranted.” 

Pelosi has so far resisted calls for holding an impeachment hearing, noting that such a move could divide the nation, bolster Trump’s base and would almost certainly be shot down in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Khanna advised Trump to allow current and former officials to testify in front of Congress, saying such transparency would ease calls for impeachment from Capitol Hill. 

The California Democrat has been a consistent voice against impeachment, saying Democrats should focus on advancing their policy priorities. 

“I’m not there yet, I believe that we need to be methodical, we need to make a case, and at the same time what I want to see is work on infrastructure to get the 2 trillion infrastructure bill, to work on lowering prescription drugs, all the other things that I can came to Congress to do,” Khanna told Hill.TV on Tuesday.

“Do I think we need to have [special counsel] Bob Mueller testify, [former White House counsel] Don McGahn testify? Absolutely. The committees need to do their work … but I’m not where some of my colleagues are in terms of formally starting any impeachment process.”