While some Congressional Democrats fume over the go-slow approach to impeachment taken by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), she continues to hold firm, on Wednesday ruling out even a vote to censure President Trump.
She called censure “just a way out” and — despite her reluctance to launch impeachment proceedings — declared that “if the goods are there, you must impeach.”
Pelosi spoke at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, “on a morning when Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) announced his support for launching impeachment proceedings, becoming the 69th House Democrat to do so,” reports the Washington Post.
Pelosi insists “she feels “no pressure” from her caucus to launch impeachment proceedings,” says Politico.
“If you’ve got to go down this [impeachment] path, you have to make sure that the public has an understanding of why,” she told reporters. “What I believe is that when we go forward, as we go forward, it has to run deep.”
Pelosi also revealed that she plans to examine a more complete version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, even though she previously rejected Attorney General William Barr’s insistence that only the top Congressional leadership see it.
“We will be having access to a less redacted version of the Mueller report,” Pelosi said at the breakfast meeting. “I accepted that because I’m afraid — I really don’t trust the attorney general of the United States.”
“House Democrats had previously insisted on access to the full report, without redactions,” says the Post. Pelosi said under a new agreement worked out with Barr, “many more people than just leadership” will be able to read it.