Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi told NBC’s “Today” that Democrats will wait and see what comes out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report before deciding whether to impeach President Donald Trump.
Pelosi said in the exclusive interview, which aired Thursday, that impeachment "would be” very divisive, adding: “We shouldn't be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn't avoid impeachment for a political reason.”
Soon to regain control of the House, Democrats will be able to pass articles of impeachment against the president, where they would then advance to the Senate for a trial. But with the Senate having a slight GOP majority, it’s unlikely that Trump would face a conviction and removal from office.
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Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials. Already, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former attorney Michael Cohen have entered guilty pleas to charges stemming from the investigation.
Asked by “Today’s” Savannah Guthrie about the Department of Justice’s guidance that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Pelosi said that was not settled law. She added that “everything indicates” a “president can be indicted after he is no longer president of the United States.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway responded Thursday to some of Pelosi's remarks, telling reporters Trump is not concerned about possible impeachment.
Conway added that she thinks "it's unfortunate" to "already have an incoming speaker talking about indictments and impeachment when" Trump "is talking about border security and infrastructure."
Pelosi told NBC that when negotiating with Trump, "you have to ... stipulate to some fact.”
"It's hard to do that with the president because he resists science, evidence, data, truth," Pelosi said. “It’s hard to pin the president down on the facts."
But she believes Democrats and the president can work together in a positive way "now that the president is more acclimated to the fact that he's dealing with a Democratic majority in the Congress of the United States."
