As RedState has already reported, when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said this week that he would be starting an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, the left did what they usually do, they gnashed their teeth. But some powerful people on the right had a problem with it for very different reasons.
While that contentious discussion continues, one topic that really shouldn’t be discussed at this time is how former Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, handled the 2019 impeachment investigation into then-President Trump regarding the purported “quid pro quo” phone call Trump had with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and the post-Capitol rebellion impeachment investigation she initiated in January 2021.
McCarthy has said that Pelosi set a pattern when she decided not to hold an official vote on an impeachment investigation in the fall of 2019 after Democrats were already starting their investigations. As a result, McCarthy is now following that precedent.
But on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this week, co-host Willie Geist brought up McCarthy’s comments about how Pelosi handled the 2019 impeachment investigation (by not having a formal vote at first). Pelosi had just confirmed that she was running for reelection. She didn’t want to think about it, so she said it was “hogwash.” She was also surprised that so many people in the media were “repeating” McCarthy’s reasons for not having a vote right now.
Still, the records don’t lie. From a story on October 15, 2019:
“There’s no rule that says we have to vote, so we’re not going to vote right now, and I’m very happy with how thoughtful our caucus is being about the path we’re on,” Pelosi said at a news conference this week after a meeting she had with her caucus.
This was about three weeks after their investigation, which included calling people they thought might be witnesses and everything else had begun.
Pelosi also has to remember that she chose not to hold a vote in the second impeachment investigation she opened against Trump following the events of January 6, 2021:
“However, when Trump was impeached for the second time in 2021, the House didn’t take a vote at all regarding an impeachment probe. The investigation was officially announced by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, just as McCarthy is doing now. However, the House did not vote on it.”
Nancy Pelosi says it's "hogwash" and "ridiculous" to say she opened an impeachment inquiry into President Trump without a House vote: "I don't know why the press keeps repeating it."
That's exactly what happened. pic.twitter.com/k9REgIFZYm
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 14, 2023
During the 2019 investigation, McCarthy told Pelosi in no uncertain terms that if she went ahead with it without a proper House vote, it would eventually come back to bite her. Well, it’s clear that time has come.
Author: Scott Dowdy
