Since the day that President Donald Trump took office, there has been a stalwart segment of the Democratic Party that has demanded his impeachment for a variety of reasons, a push that Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have simultaneously attempted to both nurture and contain for purely political purposes.
Some of those who remain fixated on impeachment have grown tired of Pelosi trying to have it both ways and are now calling her out by name, demanding she press forward with impeachment of President Trump — despite their knowledge that the odds of a conviction and removal are extraordinarily slim.
Steyer singles out Pelosi
A prime example of this phenomenon is leftist billionaire environmentalist and impeachment activist Tom Steyer, who released a statement chastising Pelosi for failing to do her basic duty of providing a check on the executive branch by impeaching Trump.
Tom Steyer calls out fellow San Franciscan Nancy Pelosi by name in tough new statement calling for impeachment.
“For far too long, Speaker Pelosi and the House Democratic Leadership have stood by while this lawless president continues this type of criminal behavior.” pic.twitter.com/Di4VMs7DOM
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) September 23, 2019
“Once again, it appears Donald Trump has asked a foreign power to interfere in our elections and provide information against a political opponent,” Steyer said in reference to anonymous and unproven media reports about Trump and Ukraine. “For far too long, Speaker Pelosi and the House Democratic Leadership have stood by while this lawless president continues this type of criminal behavior.”
“They are failing in their basic duty to oversee the Executive, and their lack of action enables Trump to continue to threaten our democracy. Enough is enough,” he continued. “Congress must start an immediate and public investigation, with daily hearings into these allegations. History will remember how Congress responds to this moment, and it cannot be complicit with its silence.”
“I started Need to Impeach almost two years ago because I believed it was important to protect our country from this lawless president, and I am renewing my call to start impeachment hearings,” Steyer added. “It is time for Speaker Pelosi to launch a public inquiry into President Trump and his criminal actions right away. He must be held accountable for his crimes.”
Politically reckless movement
Steyer was joined in his demand by two top executives of his Need to Impeach activist group, Kevin Mack and Nathaly Arriola, who wrote in an op-ed for the New York Daily News much the same message — House Democrats have failed in their duty to the country by failing to impeach a purportedly lawless president.
The piece argued that Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been attempting to “fence without a sword” and placate their angry base by “carefully maneuvering and dancing around impeachment while avoiding ruffling up Trump’s base.”
The authors suggested that while “Democratic leadership continues to equivocate,” a significant and growing portion of the left-leaning base — more than Democratic leaders or the media were aware of or wanted to admit — are ready and willing to see Trump impeached, regardless of any potential political consequences.
Indeed, they argued that even a failed impeachment effort — one that fell short of a achieving a conviction in the Senate and Trump’s removal from office — would suffice by painting the president as a criminal and making it easier to vote him out of office in the 2020 election.
Mack and Arriola indicated they were even prepared to sacrifice a few Democrat-held House seats in competitive districts if it meant that Trump would be dispatched once and for all.
Pelosi has tried to straddle the fence on impeachment for far too long, and both sides of the issue would prefer she take a firm position at long last. It would now appear that her party’s base is on the verge of forcing her to do just that.