Nancy Pelosi is playing rope-a-dope with Donald Trump on impeachment
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a moral, political, and popular imperative to impeach Donald Trump so he can be ousted and brought to justice for his endless crimes. She knows it too. So why on earth did she just say in an interview that it’s “just not worth it” to impeach Trump? Because she knows exactly how to play this Trump fool like fiddle.
For reference, here’s the full quote that Nancy Pelosi just gave to the Washington Post: “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.” Wait a minute here. Pelosi knows she has to impeach Trump, or her own voters will never forgive her, and will punish her party accordingly. But that’s the point, of course. Pelosi can’t impeach Trump today.
Well, the House could impeach Trump today if it wanted to. But then the Senate would vote along party lines against removing him, making the entire impeachment process a waste of time, which would only make Trump stronger. Pelosi knows that successfully impeaching Donald Trump requires destroying him first. She, the House Democrats, Robert Mueller, the SDNY, the Attorney General of New York, and everyone else involved must use hearings and subpoenas and court filings to completely shatter Trump to the point that even his own party is afraid of going down with him. That’s when Trump can be ousted.
In the meantime, Nancy Pelosi would gain nothing by saying she’s going to impeach Donald Trump. In fact she would hurt her chances, because the average nonpartisan American in the middle still isn’t sure if Trump needs to go, and would therefore assume Pelosi is merely playing politics if she does start talking about impeachment right now.
Instead, by answering the question in this manner, Pelosi accomplishes two things. First, she manages to put off the question until she and her allies have managed to carve Donald Trump up. Second, she’s messing with him. She just insulted him by saying he’s not worth the trouble of impeachment. Pelosi is looking to bait Trump into publicly feuding with her over the question of impeachment. That way it’ll be Trump introducing the concept, not her. And that’ll serve to help put the impeachment process on the right track. Just don’t call it “impeachment” quite yet.
