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- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump could be committing impeachable offenses, her strongest stance yet.
- More Democrats are calling for impeachment proceedings for Trump to begin in the House of Representatives.
- Pelosi has also tried to tamp down on pushes for impeachment within the Democratic caucus.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump could be committing an "impeachable offense" as the White House continues stonewalling various probes and investigations from committees in the House of Representatives.
The comments from Pelosi are her strongest yet, as she has previously attempted to tamp down on the impeachment movement snowballing in the House Democratic caucus.
"In plain sight, this president is obstructing justice and is engaged in a cover-up," Pelosi said at the Center for American Progress’ annual Ideas Conference. "And that could be an impeachable offense."
Pelosi’s remarks came just moments after her and several other Democratic leaders attended a White House meeting on infrastructure, in which Trump hijacked the agenda to rail against the mounting investigations into his administration.
"He came up with this pre-planned excuse. It’s clear this was not a spontaneous move on the president’s part. It was planned," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters in the Capitol. "When we got in the room the curtains were closed. The president — there was a place for him at the front so he could stand and attempt to tell us why he wouldn’t do infrastructure. And of course then he went to the Rose Garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting."
But the prospect of actually pursuing impeachment remains a long shot as top brass in the House Democratic Caucus remain adamant that there are still other oversight tools at their disposal and the trauma impeachment would inflict on the country would be too severe.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn warned against talking about impeachment too early on, suggesting there are not even enough votes for such a task.
Even more unlikely is the possibility that Trump would also be removed after being impeached, as the Senate is still controlled by Republicans, who are already off to strong start to defending their vulnerable seats in 2020.
Freshman firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has even admitted removal is a bit of a pipe dream for Democrats.
"I think what’s tough is impeachment is something that I openly support, but it’s also just the reality of having votes in the Senate to pursue that," she told reporters in March.
See Also:
- Pelosi and Schumer were furious after a meeting with Trump about infrastructure turned out to be a set-up for his fiery Rose Garden speech
- Trump says he won’t work with Democrats until they drop their ‘phony investigations’ into him
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just called out Democratic leaders for not moving to impeach Trump
Source: Business Insider – jperticone@businessinsider.com (Joe Perticone)