The Real Reason Why Nancy Pelosi Is Rushing Impeachment Vote Is Also The Reason They Might Lose The House In 2020
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has a problem and she knows it. She is attempting to rush the impeachment vote to the floor before the Christmas recess. Why? There are many Democrats in important battleground districts wavering on voting for impeachment and she wants to keep them away from their constituents until after the vote.
The breakdown in the House along party lines is 233 Democrats, 197 Republicans, and on Independent. Thirty-one districts that President Trump won in 2016 are represented by Democrats and they are incredibly vulnerable if they vote “yes” on impeachment.
At the moment two Democrats have come out and said they will not vote to impeach the President: Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ).
Rep. Collin Peterson, who was one of two Ds to vote against formalizing the impeachment procedures, told me this when asked if he’d vote against all articles: “I’m certainly leaning that way….I just think it will be too divisive for the country – it doesn’t accomplish anything”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 10, 2019
But, it appears there are more than just these two Congressman considering to vote no on impeachment, Politico reports:
A small group of vulnerable House Democrats is floating the longshot idea of censuring President Donald Trump instead of impeaching him, according to multiple lawmakers familiar with the conversations.
Those Democrats, all representing districts that Trump won in 2016, huddled on Monday afternoon in an 11th-hour bid to weigh additional — though unlikely — options to punish the president for his role in the Ukraine scandal as the House speeds toward an impeachment vote next week.
The group of about 10 Trump-district lawmakers included Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Anthony Brindisi (D-N.Y.), and Ben McAdams (D-Utah.).
“I think it’s certainly appropriate and might be a little more bipartisan, who knows,” Schrader said Tuesday when asked about the possibility of a censure resolution. But he acknowledged: “Time’s slipping by.”
Even if 10 House Democrats vote “no” on impeachment that would still give Pelosi 222 votes which is six more than the 216 she needs. However, that is not a unanimous vote and a thin margin of victory. The media would not be able to claim the vote was along party lines and the President could claim that those who voted “no” was a bipartisan movement in support of him.
Speaker Pelosi can rush this vote all she wants but in the end, it’s probably going to cost her the House. Especially with the new report that Democrat witness Ambassador Sondland lied during his public testimony.
