California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the newly elected House Speaker, said in an interview Thursday that indicting President Donald Trump while he is still in office and impeaching him remains a possibility.
The veteran Democrat told Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s Today show that indicting and impeaching Trump is “an open discussion.” Pelosi stated she believes Special Counsel Robert Mueller — who has been probing Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin — may seek to indict the president despite the existing Justice Department policy against this move.
“I do not think that is conclusive,” Pelosi said of the DOJ’s guidelines on indictment. “I think that that is an open discussion. I think that is an open discussion in terms of the law.”
Democrats — who now officially hold the majority in the House of Representatives — have been seeking ways to remove Trump from office for quite some time after nearly two years since he entered the White House. Some have voiced support for impeachment, although this is a tricky process that includes several requirements including a two-third majority approval in the Senate for removal from office. The Senate remains under Republican control, so impeachment remains uncertain.
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SLIDESHOW: DONALD TRUMP’S 30 CRAZIEST TWEETS
Other Democrats have cited the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that a sitting president may be removed from office if Congress deems he is incapable (physically, mentally, or otherwise) of discharging the duties that the position requires.
Trump — as well as his family, administration members and associates — has been the subject of multiple investigations since he took office, with more probes emerging in recent weeks. From the Russia inquiry to his inaugural committee to his now-closed charity the Trump Foundation and his alleged involvement in hush money payments to former mistresses, the president is mired in a myriad of issues that have sparked calls for even GOP candidates to run against Trump as Independents in 2020.
“We have to wait and see what happens with the Mueller report, Pelosi added on Thursday. “We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason. So we’ll just have to see how it comes.”
Pelosi also reiterate to Guthrie her insistence that Democrats would not provide any additional funds for a border wall, an issue that caused a standoff and subsequent government shutdown.
“No, no. Nothing for the wall. We’re talking about border security,” she said. “There is no amount of persuasion he can do to say to us, ‘We want you to do something that is not effective, that costs billions of dollars.’ That sends the wrong message about who we are as a country.”
Pelosi also called the government closing “the Trump shutdown” and blasted the president for having “proudly taken ownership of it.”
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