Nancy Pelosi talks Donald Trump’s impeachment

| 4:27 pm EDT August 2, 2019
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This week the impeachment movement against Donald Trump took a powerful if symbolic turn when a majority of House Democrats publicly came out in favor of impeachment. Palmer Report predicted that this milestone would prompt significant media coverage, which it did. Now Speaker Nancy Pelosi is speaking about impeachment herself.

Nancy Pelosi has posted a fairly lengthy document on her official website, titled “Pelosi Statement on Progress of House Investigations.” She laid out the progress that the various House committees have made in working to expose Donald Trump’s crimes, including the House Financial Services Committee’s legal battle to get Trump’s financial records, and the House Ways and Means Committee’s legal battle to get Trump’s tax returns. But the one passage most people will zoom in on is the one where Pelosi name-checked impeachment:

Last week, Jerry Nadler, Chair of Judiciary, took a significant step when he filed a petition to obtain the grand jury testimony underlying the Mueller report, for the House to ‘have access to all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article I powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity — approval of articles of impeachment.’

Why does this matter? Up to now, various major media outlets have reported that House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler wants to make a big impeachment play right now, while Nancy Pelosi wants to wait until these court battles are won over evidence and testimony before deciding whether to make a splash.

Last week Nadler moved ahead with a court filing which opened a low-key impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t have let this happen unless she was okay with it. But now she’s making a point of acknowledging that Nadler’s court filing is in fact an impeachment inquiry. The fact that Pelosi had to put out this statement at all is a sign that the impeachment movement is rapidly gaining momentum. Pelosi’s decision to name-check impeachment means that she’s fine with the momentum continuing to accelerate.