Nancy Pelosi told Democrats on Tuesday that she wants to see President Donald Trump thrown in jail.
“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” the House speaker (D-CA) reportedly said in a closed-door meeting with her caucus.
Trump behind bars?
Pelosi made the remark in a meeting Tuesday night with committee Democrats as she debated impeachment with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY). According to Politico, Nadler pressed Pelosi to move ahead with impeachment, but she held the line.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MA), Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) also reportedly attended the meeting. A spokeswoman for Pelosi said that it was “a productive meeting about the state of play with the Mueller report. They agreed to keep all options on the table and continue to move forward with an aggressive hearing and legislative strategy, as early as next week, to address the president’s corruption and abuses of power uncovered in the report.”
Sources at the meeting said that Pelosi wants to focus on defeating Trump in the 2020 election, after which he could face charges for alleged crimes.
Resisting impeachment
The House speaker has faced mounting pressure from rank-and-file Democrats in her caucus to impeach Trump, especially after Robert Mueller said last week that indicting Trump was “not an option” available to the special counsel. Democrats interpreted Mueller’s comments as a wink to Congress to pick up where Mueller left off.
More and more Democrats have called for impeaching Trump over alleged obstruction of justice, as well as the president’s stonewalling of the Democrats’ own investigations. Some Democrats, including Reps. David Cicilline (RI) and Jamie Raskin (MD), argue that launching an impeachment inquiry — even without pursuing impeachment per se — will strengthen their hand in a subpoena fight with the White House over Mueller’s unredacted report, Trump’s financial records, and witnesses in Trump’s orbit.
But even with more than 50 Democrats signing on with impeachment, Pelosi is continuing to push back against restive members of her caucus. The speaker said Wednesday that Democrats know “exactly” what they’re doing — that is, what Pelosi wants to do.
“Make no mistake, we know exactly what path we’re on. We know exactly what actions we need to take,” Pelosi said.
Although Nadler reportedly clashed with Pelosi on impeachment Tuesday, other signs indicate that he is toeing the line. The Democrat seems to be keeping impeachment at arm’s length, scheduling instead a series of pointless hearings on the Mueller report starting Monday as the House’s various investigations move forward.
Nadler is also still trying to get Mueller to testify — even after Mueller said last week that he would not — as House Democrats plan contempt votes for Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Donald McGahn next week.
Empty words
Pelosi has long favored investigating Trump before taking the more drastic measure of impeachment, warning that Democrats must shore up bipartisan support before taking such a “divisive” step. But her comment begs the question: If Trump belongs in jail, why doesn’t she just impeach him already?
While extreme, Pelosi’s latest jibe just seems to be her latest empty threat against the president and his officials. For weeks, Pelosi has slandered Trump and threatened to hold his officials accountable — with imprisonment, with fines, with impeachment — with nothing in particular, really. “Everything is on the table,” she keeps saying.
Pelosi has a dilemma: she needs to satisfy the impeachment mob that still comprises a minority in her caucus, but she knows that any impeachment push is dead on arrival in the Republican-held Senate. She’s stuck trying to balance her party’s appetite for revenge with what is best for the party.
Pelosi’s dilemma is reflected in her rhetoric. While accusing Trump of instigating a “constitutional crisis” as well as a criminal “cover-up,” she still won’t commit to impeaching him.
Other targets of Pelosi’s threats can hardly be blamed for not taking her rhetoric seriously. At an event in Washington last month, Attorney General Barr jokingly asked the speaker whether she had brought handcuffs as Democrats debated arresting him. While not going so far, Pelosi had accused him of perjury.
Will Pelosi ever make a real move?
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