House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday declined to say whether Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who several ex-staffers have accused of sexual harassment and misconduct, should step down under her “zero tolerance policy.”
“You said there’s now a zero tolerance,” Chuck Todd asked Pelosi on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “John Conyers. What does that mean for him right now? In or out?”
“We are strengthened by due process. Just because someone is accused, and was it one accusation? Is it two? I think there has to be—John Conyers is an icon in our country. He has done a great deal to protect women,” Pelosi replied.
BuzzFeed News reported last week that several former staffers of Conyers accused him of inappropriately touching them and asking them for sexual favors. Conyers denied wrongdoing, but admitted he reached a settlement agreement with a former staffer who said she was fired after refusing Conyers’ advances. The House Ethics Committee launched an investigation last week into the accusations against Conyers.
“I believe he will do the right thing,” Pelosi said on Sunday.
“And is the right thing what? Resign?” Todd asked.
“He will do the right thing in terms of what he knows about his situation,” Pelosi said. “He’s entitled to due process. But women are entitled to due process as well.”
She claimed that Conyers’ accusers “have not really come forward” and said she doesn’t “know who they are.”
“So you don’t know if you believe the accusations?” Todd said.
“Well, that’s for the Ethics Committee to review,” Pelosi said.
.@NancyPelosi: Accused Congressman Conyers is an "icon" in our country. #MTP pic.twitter.com/4QlKKJTIJP
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) November 26, 2017
The author didn’t mention the fact that Pelosi nailed Fuck Todd’s ass to the wall for concentrating on a Dem sex scandal and not talking about the heinous GOP tax bill. Chuckles tried to cut her off at the end when he thought he got the responses he wanted in the first place, but Nancy wasn’t having it:
Which then caused the next guest, Senator AnalPortmann (Asshat- OH) to try to grab time at the end of his evasion-laden interview, to badly defend the GOP tax train-wreck…
The lady rocks, as evident in this interview with Chuckles so let’s not hear any more talk of the pasture people seem to think should be her next stop.
@maximus
I’m guessing we’ve gone over this in a thread at some point, but the tax bill is gonna be so good for American companies which shield their profits overseas beginning with Apple which currently shields $252.3 million in Ireland. Add in the proposed tax cut for corporations, pretty soon we’ll owe them money for just existing.
She’s right about the due process. She’s also right that he should resign if he was in fact using his position to harass women.
Of course this will be spun as “Democrats hypocritical for assuming Moore is guilty while stressing due process for Conyers.”
But if Moore is elected, he’ll face the same Ethics Committee process Conyers is facing.
Meanwhile, everyone has a right to say whether they believe or don’t believe (or aren’t sure about) the accusations against both Moore and Conyers (and Franken, for that matter) and whether those people should voluntarily withdraw/resign from their candidacy/office.
There’s no reason that if you believe the accusations against one of them, you somehow have to believe the accusations against all the others. That’s the kind of “foolish consistency” that Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
If Moore wins, he’ll get the same due process before the Ethics Committee that Conyers is facing. The difference is that Moore will have to get past the voters of Alabama first. Conyers and Franken, should they remain in office and run for re-election, will face their voters later. That’s not some Democratic plot for unequal justice, that’s just the reality of when the accusations became public and when the relevant elections are taking place.
This business is turning into a farce, with accusations of varying gravity and credibility and publicity giving rising to a chaotic set of responses by Democrats. If they haven’t done so already, Congressional Democrats need to set out a clear code of conduct for their caucus membership and anyone running for office; a grievance procedure open to complainants from the general public and internal staff alike; and a clear spectrum of penalties ranging from warnings to expulsion. The procedure should specify the circumstances in which a Democrat who is the subject of a complaint should be suspended from his/her official duties pending the resolution of the matter. And presumably the investigative and disciplinary function of the bipartisan House Ethics Committee would also be clarified.
As matters presently stand, it’s a chaotic and counterproductive free-for-all.