All 231 House Democrats are now unofficially in favor of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) launched an impeachment “inquiry” into Trump Tuesday over a phone call in which he asked the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter — but Pelosi did not, as is custom, actually call a vote on the matter. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded by introducing a resolution condemning Pelosi’s move, and Democrats voted against it in a party line vote. In other words, although Pelosi hasn’t actually brought up an official impeachment vote, Democrats are now on record in support of her.
Dems on the record
There can be little doubt that Pelosi was serious when, after months of waffling on the issue, she declared the formal launch of an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday. Asserting that “no one is above the law,” Pelosi accused Trump of betraying his oath of office by allegedly asking Ukraine’s president to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. The news sent Washington into chaos, and Republicans began gleefully predicting a backlash, saying that Pelosi had walked into a trap set by the far-left wing of her party.
Instead of doing things the conventional way, Pelosi unilaterally announced that an impeachment inquiry was underway. As Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) observed, Pelosi’s “decree changes absolutely nothing. As I have been telling Chairman [Jerry] Nadler for weeks, merely claiming the House is conducting an impeachment inquiry doesn’t make it so. Until the full House votes to authorize an inquiry, nobody is conducting a formal inquiry.” Minority Leader McCarthy, using his authority as the top Republican in the House, forced a resolution condemning in detail Pelosi’s unilateral action to get Democrats on the record.
“The battle lines are drawn,” a senior House GOP aide who was “directly involved in the effort to expose Democrats on the floor” told Breitbart News. “We now know where every member of the House is on impeachment. And we know it is purely partisan.”
Democrats fired back by voting to “table” McCarthy’s resolution, and the vote was split along party lines: all Democrats voted in favor, while all Republicans voted against. Former Republican Justin Amash (MI) voted with the Democrats.
Until last week, impeachment seemed all but a lost cause for Democrats. Then an anonymous “whistleblower” claimed that Trump made a “promise” to a foreign leader, setting off a meltdown in Washington that culminated in Pelosi’s abrupt announcement Tuesday. A majority of House members now back “some type” of impeachment action, according to NBC. Of course, there is only one step toward impeachment that matters — a vote. But Pelosi, like she has always done, is continuing to equivocate. If Democrats know that Trump is a traitor, why don’t they just vote already?
Equivocation game
Of course, it’s the same game the Democrats have been playing since the Mueller report landed: while accusing Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, the left has continually invoked the need for further fact-finding. They’re mysteriously reticent, even still, to go on the record in favor of his impeachment. Oddly, Pelosi has now declared that the probe will focus on the Ukraine scandal. It’s almost as though the Russia hoax never even happened. Of course, it was never really about the facts; Democrats have been searching for a pretext to remove Trump from office, and it looks like they may have found it.
President Trump released the whistleblower complaint Thursday, satisfying the Democrats’ demands for transparency. The whistleblower admits to having no firsthand knowledge of the contents. According to the DOJ, the whistleblower has “some indicia of an arguable political bias” in favor of a “rival candidate” to Trump.
The complaint largely re-hashes the contents of the phone transcript released Wednesday, as well as public media reports on meetings between Trump officials and Ukrainian officials to discuss investigations of the Bidens and alleged 2016 election interference efforts originating in Ukraine. The most eye-grabbing claim is that Trump had the call transcript “locked down” and “loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature.” The allegation prompted Pelosi to cry “cover up.”
The Democrats have doubled down upon the “disturbing” nature of the complaint, despite the fact that it’s anonymous, unsubstantiated and has no proof of a quid pro quo, contrary to assurances given by Democrats earlier this week. The phone transcript already showed that Trump did not discuss any explicit quid pro quo with Ukraine’s president — significantly, he did not discuss military aid that Democrats claimed Trump had frozen to pressure Ukraine. But once again, Democrats are relying on innuendo and secondhand information to accuse the president of treason.
If they meant what they said, they would have impeached Trump months ago. Now they claim they’re finally doing it — except, they really aren’t. Are Democrats really going to impeach the president based on hearsay? If they are indeed serious, then let them get on with it already.
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