Pelosi Won’t Pull the Trigger on Impeaching Trump, but She’s Happy to Fundraise on Removing Him

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) incurred the wrath of liberal Twitter today with a tweet from her campaign account soliciting donations for her 2020 re-election, shedding some light on a growing division among Democrats on how best to oppose President Donald Trump. The tweet said it was “sad” that Trump “doesn’t know right from wrong,” and then, “It’s time for Trump to go.”

Along with the tweet was a link to Pelosi’s fundraising page on the ActBlue platform, along with a graphic asking “WANT TO REPLACE TRUMP IN 2020?”

It’s actually sad: Donald Trump doesn’t know right from wrong. It’s time for Trump to go. https://t.co/2B2m5rhg0j

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) June 18, 2019

Visitors to Pelosi’s ActBlue page saw the following message, along with a contribution form and the standard required campaign finance disclaimers:

Replace Trump in 2020

Trump is indifferent to any sense of ethics and to the very core of who we are as a country. It’s time for him to go.

Chip in now to help replace Trump and expand the Democratic House Majority.

Pelosi, who has led her caucus for years through Democratic majorities and minorities, and under presidents of both parties, has often been viewed as a savvy political strategist. This fundraising tweet, however, met with a loud and swift backlash as a message that missed its mark.

As Speaker of the House, she has broad powers to call for Congressional hearings and investigations, both directly and through the various Democrat-controlled House committees, the chairs of which were all appointed by her. But as month after month of Trump’s presidency has gone by, Pelosi has made headlines for her steadfast refusal to initiate impeachment hearings, despite the exhortations of many Democratic presidential candidates, members of Congress, and other liberal activists.

Several political commentators from both sides of the aisle have observed that Pelosi could very well call for aggressive investigations into various Trump campaign and administration matters, but not call them “impeachment” hearings at the outset, as a sort of “impeachment lite” strategy. Thus far, she has declined to pursue even that route.

Pelosi is undoubtedly aware of the risk unsuccessful impeachment proceedings pose for the party opposing the president, and with the Senate still under Republican control and no realistic chance of enough GOP defectors to remove Trump from office, any steps in this direction are likely to galvanize Trump’s base as the 2020 elections approach.

Still, political reality is little consolation for a Democratic base that demands increasingly extremist action. The clown car of Democratic presidential candidates have spent more time cheering on radical ideas like slavery reparations, abolishing the entire Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, or packing the Supreme Court, than they have proposing tax reforms or other basic policies that realistically stand a chance of becoming law.

So we have the left demanding impeachment like Veruca Salt stomping her feet and demanding one of Willy Wonka’s squirrels. Never mind that the backlash to a failed impeachment attempt threatens to drag down Democratic candidates like those squirrels dispatched a certain spoiled little girl.

At the time this article was written, the @TeamPelosi tweet had nearly two thousand replies. Scrolling through them shows the overwhelming majority asking her to consider impeachment hearings, or just flat out demanding that she start them.

One of the top-liked responses was posted by Mckayla Wilkes, a Maryland congressional candidate whose bio states that she is a “Progressive primary challenger of Steny Hoyer to represent MD-05.” Wilkes slammed Pelosi’s donation request as “making no sense,” considering Pelosi’s refusal to bring impeachment hearings.

We kind of want you to go with him Nancy. You’re actually asking us to donate to you because “Trump needs to go” but you won’t begin impeachment proceedings. This donation request makes entirely no sense.

— Mckayla Wilkes for Congress (@MeetMckayla) June 18, 2019

Like all House members, Pelosi has to have her name on the ballot every two years, and will need to fundraise to support her 2020 re-election efforts. But unless and until she’s willing to give Democrats their impeachment squirrel, she might be better advised to avoid this type of messaging.

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Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.

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