House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sparred with multiple members of her caucus Monday as the White House’s latest stonewalling caused eruptions of anger and calls to start impeachment proceedings.
According to Politico, Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Joe Neguse (D-CO) all pushed the Speaker to begin the process during a meeting in Pelosi’s office.
She and her allies countered, saying that beginning impeachment proceedings would, for all intents and purposes, shut down the investigations into President Donald Trump being headed by other committees.
“You want to tell Elijah Cummings to go home?” she asked, referring to the House Oversight Committee chairman.
In a steering committee meeting the same day, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) (of fried chicken fame) also called to start the ball rolling, saying that former President Bill Clinton was impeached “for sex” while Trump is “raping the country.”
Pelosi tried to soothe her caucus by pointing to the favorable ruling from a judge on House subpoenas for Trump’s financial records that came down on Monday.
“What we said when we started is that these [investigations] will yield information to us. Today, we won our first case,” Pelosi said, per Politico. “We’ve been in this thing for almost five months and now we’re getting some results.“
The Democrats’ latest bout of frustration is a result of the White House blocking former counsel Don McGahn, a star witness in the Mueller report, from testifying on Tuesday. The House Judiciary Committee has decided to proceed with the hearing, even sans-McGahn.
