Tipsheet

Pelosi on Impeachment: ‘Politics Is Not Even a Consideration in This’

Bronson Stocking
Bronson Stocking  |  December 05, 2019 11:05 PM

On Thursday night, CNN hosted a town hall with Speaker Nancy Pelosi that focused mostly on the impeachment of President Trump.

Host Jake Tapper asked the speaker of the House if she would have any regrets, come 2020, if exit polls revealed that pursuing impeachment had helped President Trump win reelection. 

“No,” Pelosi answered unequivocally. “This isn’t about politics at all. This is about patriotism. It’s not about partisanship. It’s about honoring our oath of office.” 

Throughout the town hall, Pelosi quoted the founding fathers and acted as if the Constitution had been written for the express purpose of making sure taxpayer money flowed freely to corrupt countries like Ukraine. 

“For him to take money, appropriated by the House and the Senate in a bipartisan way, for military assistance to Ukraine, which is a country under assault from Russia … and he’s withholding the funds that could help them defend themselves,” Pelosi continued. “It is the wrong thing to do. But in the course of doing it, the president, again, has violated his oath of office.” 

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In reality, President Trump took an oath to faithfully execute the office of president and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. Trump did not take an oath to protect and defend the flow of taxpayer money to Ukraine. 

In fact, as Republicans keep pointing out and the mainstream media keep ignoring, the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last year actually requires the president to certify that Ukraine was rooting out corruption before the president could hand over taxpayer money to them. So the president was faithfully executing his office and enforcing a law passed by Congress when he brought up the issue of corruption during his phone call with President Zelensky.  

But try telling that to Speaker Pelosi or the carefully selected audience members who spoon-fed the speaker her pro-impeachment questions. I can’t wait for the real town halls to begin, the ones where House Democrats have to confront their angry constituents.