Pelosi says no regrets about holding onto impeachment articles, suggests Trump could face more

Image: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at the Wall Street Jou
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Copyright Al Drago Reuters
By Allan Smith with NBC News Politics
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Trump will "be impeached forever," Pelosi told ABC's "This Week."

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday she had no regrets about holding onto the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for weeks and suggested he could face additional articles of impeachment going forward.

"Well, let's just see what the Senate does," Pelosi told ABC's "This Week" when asked if the House could file additional articles against Trump. "The ball will be in their court soon."

"I think that the American people have been very fair about saying, yes, we do want to see witnesses," she added. "That wasn't part of the discussion three weeks ago. It is now."

In a letter to Democratic lawmakers on Friday, Pelosi said she will consult with them Tuesday to determine the next steps in Trump's impeachment. Asked Friday if she would submit the articles to the Senate this week, Pelosi told reporters, "We'll see."

Her letter suggested the House could name impeachment managers, who will act as prosecutors in the Senate trial, and transmit the articles as soon as this week. The letter came as Trump said he would block former national security adviser John Bolton from testifying in the trial. Bolton, a key witness to the president's actions toward Ukraine that led to his impeachment, said he would testify before the Senate if subpoenaed.

"What we did want, though, and we think we accomplished in the past few weeks, is that we wanted the public to see the need for witnesses, witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what happened, documentation which the president has prevented from coming to the Congress as we review this," Pelosi said before criticizing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for supporting a resolution offered by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that would allow for the dismissal of the articles if Pelosi decided not to send them over within 25 days after passage.

"One of the things that I think is really important, what I think people should be very aware of, very unusually, the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has signed on to a resolution to dismiss the case, to dismiss the case," she said, adding, "Dismissing is a cover-up. If they want to go that route, again, the senators who are thinking now about voting for witnesses or not, they will have to be accountable for not having a fair trial."

Pelosi has held onto the articles for weeks, saying she would not submit them to the Senate until McConnell outlines specifics about the trial process. McConnell, who in December said he was working in "total coordination" with the White House on impeachment, has called for a two-step impeachment trial process matching the procedure from then-President Bill Clinton's trial in 1999. That process included an initial resolution to hear the case followed by a vote on whether to call witnesses.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called for a one-resolution process to address both items. Schumer wants the Senate to call four witnesses, including Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, to testify about the president's conduct towards Ukraine.

In December, the House passed two articles of impeachment against Trump. The first charged him with abusing his power by pushing Ukraine to announce investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and Democrats as Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to the country and an official White House visit for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The second article charged Trump with obstructing Congress' investigation into the matter.

Ahead of Pelosi's "This Week" interview, Trump asked host George Stephanopoulos on Twitter to ask "Crazy Nancy" about "why she allowed Adam "Shifty" Schiff to totally make up my conversation with the Ukrainian President & read his false words to Congress and the world, as though I said it? He got caught! Ask why hearing was most unfair & biased in history?"

Trump was referencing September comments Schiff, D-Calif., made during a hearing in which the chairman parodied Trump's rhetoric from his July 25th phone call, though parts of Schiff's phrasing matched that of the White House summary of what Trump said.

"Let me just say, it's Sunday morning, I'd like to talk about some more pleasant subjects than the erratic nature of this president of the United States, but he has to know that every knock from him is a boost," Pelosi said in response. "He's the president who said I should have impeached George Bush, because of the war in Iraq, and now he's saying I'm obsessed."

She added that Trump "crossed" the line with regards to his conduct involving Ukraine, saying "he violated the constitution in such a way that could not be ignored."

"So again, I don't like to spend too much time on his crazy tweets, because everything he says is a projection," she added. "When he calls someone crazy he knows that he is. Everything he says you can just translate it back to who he is."

Trump will "be impeached forever," she said.

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