Opinion: Democratic equivocation over impeachment is a moral and political disaster
By Greg Sargent Greg Sargent Opinion writer covering national politics Email Bio Follow Opinion writer April 19 at 10:50 AM As the political world digests the shocking scale of corruption, misconduct, and skirting of criminality detailed in the Mueller report, Democrats have been pushing back on the idea that it’s time to initiate an inquiry into the impeachment of Donald J. Trump.
By my count, Democrats are offering at least four different rationales for refraining from launching such an inquiry. “After we get that,” Nadler said, the question of impeachment can better be addressed: “One of the things we need that evidence for is to determine whether to do that or not.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has offered a similar rationale, claiming that Trump himself is “not worth it.” But this, too, is an evasion: The question isn’t whether this carries “worth” for Democrats; it’s whether Trump’s misconduct demands an impeachment inquiry on the merits.
But this, too, is fatally flawed. It gives Republicans veto power over even the question of whether to launch an inquiry. Importantly, an inquiry is not a decision whether to impeach or not. Rather, it initiates a long, deliberative fact-gathering process that is designed to ultimately inform that decision.
But even if those are true, these flimsy rationales create their own political problem. The basic posture seems to be that if Democrats wait until the shock of the Mueller revelations dies down, then the question of whether to launch an inquiry will recede with it.
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