Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sat down with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith for a Q&A session. One of the questions that came up was very political in nature: Isn't Pelosi worried about the Democrats losing their majority in the House in 2020, especially on the heels of her formal impeachment inquiry announcement.
"I wanna ask you, Speaker, heading into the next election cycle, do you have any anxiety at all, about anything we're talking about, or anything we're not talking about, impacting your ability to hold control of the House in 2020?" Smith asked, a clear reference to the Democrats' impeachment inquiry.
"It doesn't matter," she replied.
"It doesn't matter?" he asked.
"Our first responsibility is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," Pelosi said.
#NEW: Speaker Pelosi says it "doesn't matter" whether Democrats lose control of the House in 2020 as a result of launching impeachment proceedings: "Our first responsibility is to protect and defend the Constitution of the U.S."pic.twitter.com/Nz0xVNYMjD
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) September 29, 2019
According to the Speaker, she doesn't take any joy in moving forward with an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, ABC News reported.
"This is a very sad time for our country. There is no joy in this," she said. "We must be somber, we must be prayerful and we must pursue the facts further to make a decision as to did this violate the Constitution of the United States? Which I believe it did."
"I'm heartbroken about it. I would just have hoped that there would be something exculpatory, something that would say, 'This is not what it seems to be,' but that's not where we are right now," she said. "I think that right now there's a cover up of the cover up. This really goes beyond."
Pelosi said the political risk "doesn't matter" because the president took an oath that he needs to uphold.
"We cannot have a President of the United States undermining his oath of office. His loyalty is to his oath of office," she explained.
She argued Trump is undermining the United States' national security and the integrity of our elections.
"Our elections are the fundamental point of our democracy," Pelosi said.
.@SpeakerPelosi: "I think right now, there’s a cover-up of the cover-up.” #TribFest19 https://t.co/365pEc5z9p pic.twitter.com/Jsi35ObwIc
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 29, 2019
Pelosi sure is changing her tune. It wasn't long ago that she refused to move forward with impeaching Trump. Now we're suddenly at this major crossroads where election meddling took place? She announced her official impeachment inquiry before anyone knew what the transcripts of President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. It's hard for anyone to take this political charade seriously, especially when there's absolutely zero evidence of quid pro quo.