Hillary Clinton cautions against rushing to impeach Trump

Hillary Clinton cautioned House Democrats on Wednesday against rushing to impeach President Trump following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

“Congress should hold substantive hearings that build on the Mueller report and fill in its gaps, not jump straight to an up-or-down vote on impeachment. In 1998, the Republican-led House rushed to judgment. That was a mistake then and would be a mistake now,” Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016, wrote in  an op-ed published in TheWashington Post.

{mosads}The op-ed comes after Clinton on Tuesday threw her support behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has hesitated to take up impeachment.

“I think Nancy is right to be cautious about making sure whatever is done in this Congress is more in accord with the very careful approach of 1973 and ‘4,” Clinton said while speaking at the Time 100 Summit, referring to impeachment proceedings against former President Nixon.

In her Wednesday op-ed, Clinton again called on Congress to follow the precedent set by Watergate.

“Then, as now, there was an investigation that found evidence of corruption and a coverup. It was complemented by public hearings conducted by a Senate select committee, which insisted that executive privilege could not be used to shield criminal conduct and compelled White House aides to testify,” she wrote. She also said that Mueller, former White House counsel Don McGahn and “other key witnesses” should testify.

Clinton called on Congress to create an independent commission on election security, saying that Trump “has proved himself unwilling to defend our nation from a clear and present danger.”

“We have to get this right,” she wrote. “The Mueller report isn’t just a reckoning about our recent history; it’s a warning about the future. Unless checked, the Russians will interfere again in 2020, and possibly other adversaries, such as China or North Korea, will as well. This is an urgent threat.”