Posted on 10/29/2019 10:39:19 AM PDT by Liz
House Democratic leaders are walking back a planned vote Thursday that would officially endorse impeachment proceedings and say that the resolution would merely address the process of holding public hearings on the matter.
“This is not an impeachment resolution,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what an impeachment resolution is.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday that the planned vote was “not an impeachment resolution.”
Earlier in the day, Pelosi announced the House would vote on a resolution that “affirms the ongoing, existing investigation,” and “establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the president and his Counsel.”
Pelosi characterized the vote as one that would put to rest accusations by President Trump and the GOP that the impeachment proceedings are not legitimate because they were not sanctioned by an official House vote.
“We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump Administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representative,” Pelosi said Monday.
But Democrats are suddenly wary of calling it an official vote to open an impeachment hearing and aren’t even promising a vote on Thursday.
Hoyer said the resolution “addresses moving from the investigatory phase to the hearing phase,” of the impeachment proceedings, entering the public phase. Hoyer, who controls the floor schedule, would not fully commit to holding the vote on Thursday. “We are going to have to consider whether or not it is ready to go on Thursday,” Hoyer said. The resolution will be drafted and advanced Wednesday by the House Rules Committee, whose Democrats operate as an essential arm of the speaker.
Hoyer described the resolution as one that would establish a process for ending the closed-door investigatory phase of the impeachment proceeding, which has so far involved depositions taken in a secure room in the basement of the U.S. Capitol.
The House Intelligence Committee has been running the proceedings since late September, and lawmakers from Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Government Reform have been invited to attend and ask questions. The resolution expected Thursday would “address the process,” of ending the closed-door depositions “into a phase when we have public hearings.”
Hoyer added, “That is what this is: No more, no less.” The resolution is expected to provide the Intelligence panel with sole authority to conduct the public hearings, which departs from precedent.
Past presidential impeachment hearings involving both judges and presidents have always been conducted by the House Judiciary Committee.
The resolution is expected to provide minority Republicans with an opportunity to call witnesses and for Trump to defend himself against Democrats who accuse him of abusing power and obstructing Congress.
Hoyer said he didn’t know when public hearings would begin.“We still want to do this expeditiously, but we are not bound by any time deadline, Hoyer said.
Translation, the took a poll on this non impeachment impeachment vote they thought they could pass and get away with playing semantics, and realized no matter what they called it the public would view it as an impeachment vote and democrats in Trump districts will never vote for it.
Looks familiar, where have I seen that before (s)!!
Well done.
She doesn’t have the votes and she knows it.
Wishful thinking. She has all the votes she needs and is just waiting to impeach POTUS. No reason for the Dems to impeach Trump now and let the GOP Senate refuse to convict him. The Dems want to drag this out for months more.
But I am not a lawyer.
Hoyer's Brain: "We will have the vote the day before the Horowitz report comes out, and not a day sooner"
A quibble over phrasing - without a vote, the house isn't subpoenaing anybody relative to impeachment. The fake subpoenas are from four members of the house, counting Pelosi.
At this point, the federal courts say that four members of the House have this power, regardless of how the house votes as a whole.
My belief has always been that if Pelosi had the votes when she gave her first speech about starting the “official “impeachment hearing proceedings or whatever and word she used, she would’ve had a vote to begin the impeachment process within a day or two of that speech. The fact that they have not had a vote while screaming about how we must get rid of Trump leads me to believe Pelosi may not have the votes.
The Dems will only technically “authorize the inquiry” after it is finished. Then they’ll have the vote to impeach straight away. Sometime in January would be my guess.
“It will give President Trump a good plan ...”
And a good forum to rain down dirt on the conspirators.
I was not aware of that ruling. Can you cite?
Did the Wicked Witch of the West just realize Thursday is Halloween, and a vote that day would interfere with her other plans?
The vote is so the network news can get huge ratings and public opinion can be swayed against the President without any real judicial process. A win win for the democrats and their media mouthpieces.
The driving issue here isn’t Dem votes to impeach. I have no doubt the Dems have the votes to impeach Trump. What is going on here is the Dems know the GOP Senate is very unlikely to convict POTUS. So they will drag out the impeachment process as long as possible before allowing the Senate to resolve it.
In other words....they don’t have the votes.
Yet.
It must be Trump’s fault. LOL
None of the standing rules of the House delegates any impeachment power. Technically, that power is still dormant in the house. Four house members are gone rogue with the house, and one of them is the speaker!
Good source for legal documents and arguments whether the Pelosi-initiated constitutional crisis is a House Impeachment Investigation as a matter of law:
Docket for Nadler Application for GJ/Mueller Material : Case 1:19-gj-00048
Jul 26: Nadler Application to Unseal Grand Jury / Mueller Report
DC District Court Case 1:19-gj-00048 | Judge Beryl Howell
Sep 13: DOJ Response (Objection) to Application to Unseal
Oct 03: Rep. Collins Amicus Brief - Not an Impeachment Inquiry
Oct 25: Judge Howell Opinion and Order siding with Nadler
Oct 28: DOJ Motion for Stay Pending Appeal
The Thursday vote is simply to "address the process". Thus, the Democrats in problem districts can claim that their vote of assent was to put a proper process in place in order to protect the President.
This "spin" will convince the squeamish Democrats in problem districts to go along with the charade and assure Pelosi that she has the votes.
_________________________
Wrongamundo.
The squeamish Democrats are still in trouble and they know it. They even may have put the pressure on Hoyer to go brush up Dear Nancy.
1) McConnell has already said if the process is not legally fair (president lawyer representation, cross-examing witnesses for exculpatory evidence, etc), then any findings sent to the Senate will be DOA.
2) The dems dont want an impeachment going into the election year where at noon every day for 3 or 4 hours, their presidential candidates who also happen to be sitting senators, will have to come off the campaign trail to attend the trial. That show would be a disaster for dems in the election year.
I think Nancy pulled the trigger on this last month hoping she could get an impeachment vote quickly to a) appease the loony left squad, and b) to tarnish Trump with an asterisk by his name in the history books, the way Clinton is tarnished. I dont know if she is too senile to realize she has boxed herself into a place she never really wanted to be. If its not senility, its a hatred eating at her soul. It wont bare the fruit she is looking for.
Would it be a loss for this country if all of these DIM seditionist losers were exiled for the rest of their worhtless lives??? Just askin’ for clarification.
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