Editorial: Nancy Pelosi has been a trailblazer. The U.S. is better for her leadership, and for her ability to take on Donald Trump
In early March, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made House Democrats’ first foray into impeachment on their own initiative, charging President Trump with “impeachable conduct” related to “obstruction of Congress” for his demand that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky make a “quid pro quo” for military aid.
In March, Speaker Nancy Pelosi began House Democrats’ first foray into impeachment on their own initiative, charging President Trump with “impeachable conduct” related to “obstruction of Congress” for his demand that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky make a “quid pro quo,” as the top-ranking Democrat in the House put it. (March 24, 2019) (Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP)
We believe Nancy, and we should too. (It should, of course, be noted that she was never accused of lying, only of “playing the president’s game” of manipulating the rules of the House while he was a public official in order to get his way.)
Like the impeachment process itself, which Speaker Pelosi called “the most shameful occurrence in American history,” Nancy Pelosi has been a trailblazer, a woman in a time-consuming position and a very vocal one, who is determined to get things done.
And she deserves credit for making the impeachment process happen on her own, and getting Republicans on the record to support impeachment. The House approved her articles of impeachment on a vote of 419–0.
The president’s conduct that Pelosi detailed, and that he has denied, was to pressure a foreign leader to investigate his political rivals, to solicit the president of Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, and to withhold military aid so that Ukraine would announce investigations.
And there is no question that such “partisan” and “partisan” conduct falls short of the high bar that the framers of our Constitution set for impeachment, especially after