Pelosi to Trump: You Are Impeached Forever
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needled President Trump in an interview Friday night, noting that the stain of impeachment will always live on his presidency regardless of the outcome of the Senate trial.
"You are impeached forever,” Pelosi said with a smile on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher.” "No matter what the Senate does, it can never be erased.”
"If I knew that the president is listening, I would want him to know that he is impeached forever, 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. 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,” she added later. "He gave us no choice.”
House Democrats voted this week to send two articles of impeachment to the Senate, which will commence its trial of Trump next week. The articles, which accuse the president of abuse of power over his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress, passed in a party-line vote last month.
Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong in his interactions with Ukraine, though several officials have testified that he acted improperly when he leveraged military aid and a White House meeting to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rivals. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also said Thursday that the administration’s freezing of nearly $400 million in aid to Kyiv broke the law.
New evidence has emerged in the case since the articles’ passage in December, including documents from an associate of Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, indicating the president’s personal involvement in the efforts to pressure Ukraine. Former national security adviser John Bolton, who is believed to have intimate knowledge of the pressure campaign, has also said he would testify in front of the Senate if subpoenaed.
Pelosi, who has made similar comments about impeachment’s permanence in the past, said Friday night that Democrats had enough evidence last year to conduct their impeachment hearings but that new information only bolstered their case.
"The fact is that we knew we had a solid case for impeachment of the president. The facts were clear, the Constitution required it, and we wanted to make our case and go forward, so we put forth the articles of impeachment and in fact voted them,” she said.
"We knew there was plenty of other, should we say, information to come forward, but it wasn’t necessary to impeach the president. It would have been further incriminating, but not necessary, and it wouldn’t in any way weaken the case that had the support of my caucus and was completely understood by the American people.”
"You are impeached forever,” Pelosi said with a smile on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher.” "No matter what the Senate does, it can never be erased.”
"If I knew that the president is listening, I would want him to know that he is impeached forever, 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. 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,” she added later. "He gave us no choice.”
House Democrats voted this week to send two articles of impeachment to the Senate, which will commence its trial of Trump next week. The articles, which accuse the president of abuse of power over his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress, passed in a party-line vote last month.
Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong in his interactions with Ukraine, though several officials have testified that he acted improperly when he leveraged military aid and a White House meeting to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rivals. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also said Thursday that the administration’s freezing of nearly $400 million in aid to Kyiv broke the law.
New evidence has emerged in the case since the articles’ passage in December, including documents from an associate of Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, indicating the president’s personal involvement in the efforts to pressure Ukraine. Former national security adviser John Bolton, who is believed to have intimate knowledge of the pressure campaign, has also said he would testify in front of the Senate if subpoenaed.
Pelosi, who has made similar comments about impeachment’s permanence in the past, said Friday night that Democrats had enough evidence last year to conduct their impeachment hearings but that new information only bolstered their case.
"The fact is that we knew we had a solid case for impeachment of the president. The facts were clear, the Constitution required it, and we wanted to make our case and go forward, so we put forth the articles of impeachment and in fact voted them,” she said.
"We knew there was plenty of other, should we say, information to come forward, but it wasn’t necessary to impeach the president. It would have been further incriminating, but not necessary, and it wouldn’t in any way weaken the case that had the support of my caucus and was completely understood by the American people.”