Despite once again accusing President Donald Trump of a “criminal cover-up,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday refused to commit to impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
After a reporter asked Pelosi why Trump’s comment about accepting dirt from foreign governments wasn’t grounds for starting the impeachment process, the speaker paused to take a sip from her glass before saying that people should be “totally appalled” by Trump’s remark.
“This [statement] borders on so totally unethical that he doesn’t even realize it,” Pelosi said. “However, what we want to do is have a methodical approach to the path that we are on, and this will be included in that.”
“But not any one issue is going to trigger, ‘Oh, now we’ll go do this’ because it’s about investigating, it’s about litigating, it’s about getting the truth to hold everyone accountable, and no one is above the law,” she continued.
Pelosi also hinted that it was her Republican colleagues who stood in the way of launching impeachment.
“What is it about Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in Congress that they do not want to respond to what is so popular across the board in our country?” the House speaker asked. “— to take it back to your question, what is it about the Republicans in Congress, how much more can they bear of the President’s unethical behavior that they think that they are honoring their oath of office?”
Pelosi has been facing growing pressure from her Democratic caucus on impeachment after special counsel Robert Mueller’s report discussed several instances in which Trump may have obstructed justice. The speaker has said that any moves toward impeachment depend on making a “compelling case” to the public first.
Watch below:
Pelosi dodges a question about impeaching Trump after his comments about accepting dirt from foreign governments pic.twitter.com/SWSlKhYqKU
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 13, 2019
