Morning Joe's Mika did an interview with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and asked her about impeachment -- but not in a very effective way. Like most access journalists, she doesn't really push her to define her terms or explain herself further. My rule of thumb is, if the subject would have said the same things without the reporter, it's not a good interview. But it does at least allow us some insight into what Pelosi is thinking as Democrats are pushing hard for impeachment hearings.
Pelosi said Rep. Justin Amash's statements don't met her standard for bipartisan impeachment support.
"Bipartisan support for impeachment has to be in the Senate. In terms of Congressman Amash, his voice speaks to the silence of so many other -- all the other Republicans not to hold this president accountable for the oath of office that he takes to protect and defend the Constitution, respecting the co-equal branches of government. So Amash may be one voice but the fact that it is in the absence of other voices, it speaks very loudly.
"So doesn't it put more pressure on you that a conservative Republican says the threshold for impeachment has been met?"
"No."
"Why?"
"This is not about politics, it's not about passion, not about prejudice, it's not about politics. It's about patriotism and the presentation of the facts so that the American people can see why we're going down a certain path. I don't know, I feel very confident that the American people know that they deserve to know the truth and that's what we want to present to them. In a way that they don't perceive to be without the presentation of the facts.
"Should Congress be working to impeach Barr, who lied and committed perjury before the eyes of Congress?"
"The fact that the attorney general of the United States would lie to Congress under oath, again, we're on the path of contempt for him."
"You are?"
"That's what I would hope."
"The definition of subpoena is literally under penalty. What is the penalty for refusing respond to a subpoena? Is there one?"
"Well, it depends. In the Nixon articles of impeachment, Article III is that he did not honor the subpoena of the Congress of the United States. So that is an issue. But the other part of it is, there are many paths. Before they got to that place at that time, they had a long investigation. And that's what we're doing now, see where that takes us. Then we have some options available to us. One in particular is they're saying you have no purpose for these subpoenas. Well, under the Constitution, one of the purposes is to see if you want to go down the path of impeachment. There are other purposes as well."
There's no question that we're headed for impeachment, and Pelosi's on board with that. She just refuses to be rushed. She wants at least some Senate Republicans on board, and she wants the American people behind her. Let's see how her plans hold up under continuing Constitutional abuses from the Orange Cheeto.
