Pelosi Stands Her Ground On Impeachment Despite Ukrainian Bombshells

UNITED STATES - JUNE 27: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., conducts her weekly news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on Thursday, June 27, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Friday that while she has not changed her mind on the futility of pursuing impeachment charges against President Donald Trump, she’s all for passing laws to constrain his power and make clear that he can be indicted while in office.

She did not, however, explain what would compel Trump to sign or the Republican Senate to pass such legislation.

During an interview with NPR, she said that “the Founders could never suspect that a president would be so abusive of the Constitution of the United States, that the separation of powers would be irrelevant to him and that he would continue, any president would continue, to withhold facts from the Congress, which are part of the constitutional right of inquiry.”

Later on Friday, she released a statement directly addressing the alarming revelations of the past few days that Trump reportedly extorted the Ukrainian President to launch a political investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, thus hobbling the current Democratic frontrunner.

“Reports of a reliable whistleblower complaint regarding the President’s communications with a foreign leader raise grave, urgent concerns for our national security,” she writes. “We must be sure that the President and his Administration are conducting our national security and foreign policy in the best interest of the American people, not the President’s personal interest.”

She also decries the administration’s refusal to allow the intelligence whistleblower to testify to Congress about Trump’s actions, but does not outline any steps to force the issue.

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