House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is one of the most hypocritical people in Washington, D.C. When she retook the speaker's gavel last year, she repeatedly said her caucus would not impeach President Donald Trump. Fast forward a year later and where are we? The House sent two articles of impeachment – one on abuse of power, the other on obstruction of justice – to the Senate.
Even though Pelosi has repeatedly said this is a "somber" moment for the country, what was she doing last week? Smiling as she signed the articles of impeachment, handing out pens as mementos and taking pictures. It was so bad that even CNN slammed the speaker for her "jarring" actions.
Interestingly enough, Pelosi made an appearance on Bill Maher's show on Friday night. During the conversation, the speaker said her chamber had no choice but to impeach President Donald Trump.
"You waited until it was inevitable. You couldn't turn away from a thing like this?" Maher asked.
"Well, he gave us no choice," Pelosi responded. "The president was self-impeaching almost every single day. He really was."
"And there are some people who have actually said that he wanted to be impeached," the host explained. "Just for the record, being impeached is a bad thing, right?"
"And you're impeached forever," Pelosi replied with a big smile. "No matter what the Senate does, it can never be erased."
Maher asked Pelosi what she would say to Trump if he happened to be tuning into the show.
"If I knew the president was listening I would want him to know that he is impeached forever," she began. "And he is impeached forever because he used the office of the president to try to influence a foreign country for his personal and political benefit. And in doing so he undermined our national security, he was disloyal to his oath of office to protect the Constitution, and he placed in jeopardy the integrity of our election. I mean, really, he gave us no choice."
The speaker said when earlier misconduct charges were brought to her attention she felt "it wasn't worth it."
"But once he crossed that bridge it wasn't a question about him being worth it. The Constitution is worth it," Pelosi explained. "He had to be impeached."