Nadler hits gas on impeachment

[nitpicker]

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/456914-nadler-hits-gas-on-impeachment

Nadler hits gas on impeachment

By Mike Lillis and Olivia Beavers - 08/10/19 05:57 AM EDT


Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is hitting the rhetorical gas on Democratic efforts to impeach President Trump.

The Judiciary Committee chairman this week boosted his case that the panel has already launched impeachment proceedings into potential presidential wrongdoing, applying the "formal" label to the process for the first time while amplifying vows to draft impeachment articles if his ongoing probes reveal the type of misconduct to merit them.

The escalation is one of tone, rather than process. In court filings over the past several weeks, Judiciary Committee Democrats have cited the potential for impeachment as the basis for seeking disputed documents and witness testimony from an uncooperative administration, with members variably characterizing the operation as an “impeachment inquiry” or “impeachment investigation.”

Nadler's recent comments marked an amped up extension of that strategy — one that required no votes to set it in motion. But his forceful choice of words sent a clear signal that the emboldened chairman and his committee are charging ahead with a process that could lead to impeachment votes later in the year, while beating back liberal criticisms that the panel has been too timid in its investigative approach.

“This is formal impeachment proceedings,” Nadler said Thursday night in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett. “We are investigating all the evidence, we're gathering the evidence. And we will at the conclusion of this — hopefully by the end of the year — vote to [send] articles of impeachment to the House floor. Or we won’t. That’s a decision that we’ll have to make. But that’s exactly the process we’re in right now.”

Democratic lawmakers and aides say Nadler’s comments are no indication that the party’s investigative strategy has somehow changed.

“We're conducting an impeachment investigation, and we want to hear from all of the witnesses to President Trump's lawlessness,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, told CNN Thursday.

But Nadler’s headline-churning remarks have clashed with the carefully constructed message from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders, who have rejected a formal impeachment inquiry as premature. And impeachment advocates have been heartened by Nadler’s heightened rhetoric, which they see as a significant step in the march toward official votes to oust the president.
(snip)

[sharedvalues]

1. The Hill is run by a Trumpite billionaire (Finkelstein)

[empedocles]

2. The driving primal emotion of getting trump now; is a problem for the larger, lengthier,

goal of bringing traitortrump to as much justice as possible.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. That's a very good way to put it. I think of it

Like a moving train, you either want to slow it down at each station, or hope that it doesn't build up so much momentum, you won't be able to at the end of the line. For many of us (at least half of our party), that end of the line is 2020.

It's like if you knew there was a robber. But he was only robbing small time mom and pop stores...so you look the other way. You decide you will wait until he robs a giant store to do anything. Meanwhile people start thinking (subliminally perhaps) that it must be ok to rob the small stores because no one in authority tried to stop him.