Trump versus Pelosi – What's Your Point?

View The Original Article Here

– This week’s panel: Jacquie Baly – UH Downtown Political Science Professor, Mike Collier- former Democratic Lt. Governor candidate, Ben Streusand – conservative commentator, “Three Amigos”, KSEV Radio, Laura Moser – former Democratic congressional candidate, Ben Ferguson – Radio host and conservative commentator, Antonio Diaz- writer, educator and radio host,  talk about Trump’s ongoing war with Democrats.

WASHINGTON (AP) –  May 23, 2019 She’s calling for an “intervention” to save the nation from him. He says she’s “crazy.”

The enmity between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deteriorated Thursday into rude-and-then-some questioning of his fitness for office and her sanity, with personal attacks flowing from both the nation’s top elected officials after a dramatic blow-up at the White House.

However intended, the exchanges left uncertain ahead of the 2020 election whether Trump and the Democrats will be able to work together on serious, must-pass tasks, such as funding the government and raising the federal borrowing limit, let alone thornier issues such as immigration, national security and more.

Pelosi went first, with demure shrugs and practiced sass. Then, as a tornado warning blared across Washington, Trump followed with a derisive nickname – something he had declined to give her, up to now.

“She’s a mess,” Trump told reporters at an afternoon news conference in which he lined up White House staff to testify to his calmness the day before when he walked out after three minutes at a meeting with Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer.

“Crazy Nancy. … I watched Nancy and she was all crazy yesterday.”

As for himself, he declared, “I’m an extremely stable genius.”

Pelosi scolded back:

“When the ‘extremely stable genius’ starts acting more presidential, I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues,” she tweeted.

There was more, before and after that exchange, for political enthusiasts with the time and interest to follow along.

For those who don’t: The theater came a day after Trump stalked out of the Cabinet Room demanding an end to all congressional investigations before he would work with Congress on repairing U.S. infrastructure or other matters. He apparently was wound up generally over the ongoing congressional Trump-Russia probes into whether he obstructed justice, and specifically by Pelosi’s jab a few minutes earlier at the Capitol that he “is engaged in a cover-up.”

“I don’t do cover-ups,” fumed Trump, who is fighting subpoenas for testimony by current and former White House officials.

Hanging over the increasingly personal exchanges is a drumbeat among about two dozen Democrats and one Republican to launch impeachment hearings against Trump based on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which described Trump’s efforts to block his federal investigation. Pelosi has resisted that impeachment pressure, preferring a methodical process by which Congress investigates and lays out the facts on the question of obstruction of justice. She says the House is “not on a path to impeachment,” but she’s been clear this week that an impeachment inquiry is not off the table.

Short of that, she’s been happy to give Trump a hard time all year, including questioning his manhood and forcing him to re-open the government without the border wall money he demanded. On Thursday, she said the White House is “crying out” for impeachment – the idea being that a vindication by the Republican-controlled Senate would help assure his re-election.

On Thursday, subtlety went by the wayside. Pelosi said Trump has established a pattern of unpredictability, and at one point she even joked about the 25th Amendment, the Constitution’s provision laying out the procedure for replacing a president.

“I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference, adding that she prays for him and the nation.

“Maybe he wants to take a leave of absence,” she said. Asked whether she’s concerned about Trump’s well-being, she replied, “I am.”

Trump denied he wanted the House to formally charge him.

“I don’t think anybody wants to be impeached,” he said.

Pelosi, the second in line to the presidency, said she thinks Trump’s actions Wednesday were part of his skill at distraction. But she also suggested what he does isn’t all strategic.

“Sometimes when we’re talking to him he agrees,” she said, only to change his mind. “He says he’s in charge and he may be.”

During questions, Pelosi said she thought a reporter had asked about “statutory” intervention, the 25th Amendment.

“That’s a good idea,” she said with a smile. “I am going to take it up with my caucus. Not that they haven’t been thinking about it.”

She has been insulting Trump since the meeting Wednesday that was supposed to be about bridges and other crumbling infrastructure.

“For some reason, maybe it was lack of confidence on his part … he took a pass, and it just makes me wonder why he did that,” she told reporters back on Capitol Hill. “In any event I pray for the president of the United States.”

Trump tweeted back: “Nancy, thank you so much for your prayers, I know you truly mean it!”

___

WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic leaders in Congress have argued that impeaching President Donald Trump is a political mistake as the 2020 election nears. Most of the candidates running to succeed him seem to agree, for now.

Fewer than one-third of the 23 Democrats vying for the nomination are issuing calls to start the impeachment process, citing evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report they believe shows Trump obstructed justice . Most others, including leading contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, have found a way to hedge or search for middle ground, supporting investigations that could lead to impeachment or saying Trump’s conduct warrants impeachment but stopping short of any call for such a proceeding.

The candidates’ reluctance, even as more congressional Democrats start pushing their leaders in the direction, underscores the risky politics of investigating the president for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Impeachment matters deeply to the party’s base but remains unpopular with most Americans.

White House hopefuls may win praise from liberal activists by pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for an impeachment inquiry, but those who fall short of insisting are unlikely to take heat from early-state primary voters more focused on other issues.

“People talk about it and people have opinions about it, but health care is much more salient to them,” Sue Dvorsky, a former head of the Iowa Democratic Party, said in an interview. “I just don’t see Democratic activists here all worked up about impeachment. They trust Pelosi.”

The 2020 candidates are facing pressure from the left to take a harder line on impeachment as the Trump administration’s stiff-arming of subpoenas leaves House Democrats fuming and a growing number of lawmakers urge Pelosi to initiate an inquiry constitutionally required to remove Trump from office. Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the progressive group Indivisible, described the absence of louder calls for impeachment from the candidates as “a real gap in leadership.”

“What we’re seeing is, some Democrats would prefer to keep the topic focused on places where they’re most comfortable and some Democrats would prefer to play pundits on this,” Greenberg said in an interview.

Tom Steyer, a California billionaire, has run television ads and held town halls across the country as part of a campaign calling for Trump’s impeachment. He suggested that candidates who haven’t yet endorsed impeachment “have a political problem telling the truth about this.”

Steyer said that if the public saw televised, unfiltered hearings that showed “exactly how bad this president is and exactly who he’s surrounded himself with and how corrupt he really is,” Democrats and Republicans alike would “reject that kind of behavior.” Steyer declined to enter the 2020 presidential race himself.

The administration’s blockade of congressional investigations and Mueller’s report detailing possible obstruction action have yet to push any new Democratic candidates off the fence.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the current front-runner, said last month there is “no alternative” but impeachment if the administration keeps stonewalling congressional investigations. But Biden has notably stopped short of urging Pelosi to move forward.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s running second in most polls, told CNN this past week “it may be time to at least begin the process” which could result in impeachment. But he warned in the same interview that Trump could try to exact political gains from any impeachment effort. Pete Buttigieg said last week that Trump “deserves impeachment,” but the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, stressed that he would defer to Pelosi on the timing for taking any formal steps.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told The Associated Press on Friday that Trump’s refusal to cooperate with Congress amounts to “undermining the Article I branch of the government’s ability to conduct its constitutional mandates.” But he gave Pelosi wide leeway. He acknowledged that “she’s feeling the frustration from Democrats in the House” and said that “should getting cooperation from the administration not work, I know she’ll increasingly be considering her options.”

Even California Sen. Kamala Harris, who said after the release of Mueller’s report last month that “Congress should take the steps towards impeachment,” is emphasizing her pessimism that Senate Republicans would act on impeachment if the matter came before them.

The most vocal pro-impeachment candidates are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Obama housing chief Julian Castro. Two others, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and California Rep. Eric Swalwell, also have supported the start of the impeachment process.

Moulton and Swalwell are among four candidates could vote on impeachment, as current House members. Pelosi and other House leaders have signaled clearly that they want to pursue investigations into Trump, including two lawsuits where they scored victories this past week, rather than start a consuming and politically uncertain impeachment process. If the House did vote to impeach Trump, the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate to support conviction in order to remove the president from office.

Given the slim likelihood of that, it’s no surprise to Democrats outside the nation’s capital that impeachment isn’t gaining steam among the candidates.

“The people I talk seem to be more interested in what the next president is going to do to make their lives better rather than what they think about impeachment,” New Hampshire state Rep. David Morrill said in an interview.

___

Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont contributed from Newton, Iowa.