Pelosi says public opinion shifting in support of impeachment inquiry
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[September 30, 2019]
By Brad Brooks
AUSTIN, TX (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday that public opinion is now on the side of
an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump following the
release of new information about his conversations with Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Pelosi this week announced her support for an investigation after the
surfacing of a whistleblower complaint that said Trump appeared to
solicit a political favor from Ukraine's president aimed at helping him
be re-elected next year.
Pelosi for months took a cautious approach in weighing the calls of
other Democratic House members to launch impeachment proceedings against
Trump, which grew louder after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller
testified on July 24 about his probe of Trump and Russian interference
in the 2016 election.
“In the public, the tide has completely changed; it could change now -
who knows - but right now after seeing the complaint and the IG
(Inspector General) report and the cavalier attitude the administration
had towards it, the American people are coming to a different decision,"
Pelosi said at a journalism event hosted by the Texas Tribune news
website.
She added that her resistance to holding an impeachment inquiry quickly
evolved from urging that fellow Democrats remain cautious of the
political fallout ahead of next year’s elections to full steam ahead as
details emerged of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine’s leader.
“A president of the United States would withhold military assistance
paid for by taxpayers to shake down the leader of another country unless
he did him a political favor - that is so, so clear,” Pelosi said.
In a July 25 telephone call between Trump and Zelenskiy, the U.S. leader
asked his counterpart to launch an investigation of Democratic
presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served on
the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Both Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.
Trump has blasted the impeachment inquiry, arguing that he did nothing
wrong and accusing Democrats of launching a politically motivated "witch
hunt."
Lawmakers in the Democratic-led House of Representatives are
investigating concerns that Trump's actions have jeopardized national
security and the integrity of U.S. elections.
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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a news
conference on lowering drug costs, at the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, U.S., September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Al Drago
The impeachment inquiry has cast a new pall over Trump's presidency
just months after he emerged from the shadow cast by Mueller's
investigation.
“If the facts are persuasive to the American people, they may be to
some Republicans," Pelosi said during the event.
Pelosi would not forecast how long it may take for the House to
complete any possible impeachment proceedings against Trump.
“It will take as long as the Intelligence Committee needs to follow
all the facts,” she said.
Several Democratic presidential candidates attended the three-day
event in Austin, including Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former
Representative Beto O’Rourke, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former
Housing Secretary Julian Castro, all of whom agreed with Pelosi that
the campaign to push Trump from office must focus on policies and
not impeachment.
While some polls have shown Americans are split on supporting
impeachment, Castro, who served under former President Barack Obama,
said he thinks the public will increasingly back the inquiry.
“Like in Watergate, after more evidence gets out there ... you’ll
see more people of different political stripes start to support it,”
Castro said at the event, referring to moves in 1974 to impeach
former President Richard Nixon.
Nixon resigned before impeachment proceedings were launched.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Tx; Additional reporting by
Christopher Bing, in Washington, DC; Editing by Dan Grebler and
Stephen Coates)
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