Despite the growing lack of support for the Democrats’ impeachment campaign against President Trump, it seems a full House vote may have to be stretched out until after the coming holidays.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi is unlikely to hold a vote by all of the members of the House before Christmas, according to a senior member of the House Speaker’s team.
The staffer on Pelosi’s leadership team told Fox News it would be “too complex” to take a vote before Christmas, Fox News’ Chad Pergram noted in a tweet Tuesday.
Sr member of Pelosi’s leadership team tells Fox it seems unlikely that the House can vote on impeachment before Christmas. Says “it’s too complex” to do it this quickly
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
Apparently a December 20 deadline on funding bills will take up a major portion of the lawmakers’ time.
Sr Dem ldrshp source reiterates to Fox that it may be hard to put impeachment on flr before Christmas. Notes
that impeachment consumes an enormous amount of time on the House floor. Dems have to devote a big chunk of time to gov’t funding bills before Dec 20 funding deadline— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
“I just don’t see it,” the source reportedly said of getting the impeachment vote out before Christmas. “It’s too big.”
Fox is told efforts to put annual defense bill & perhaps multiple gov’t spending bills on the flr could pose traffic problem for impeachment to hit before Christmas. I just don’t see it,” said Dem leadership source about advancing impeachment before Christmas. “It’s too big.”
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
Pergram noted the potential “roadblocks” Democrats are facing.
Potential roadblocks to Dems putting impeachment on flr before Christmas: Approving some version of some appropriations bills & maybe a separate “minibus” or a CR to avoid a shutdown by Dec 20 – plus annual defense bill.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
Fox is told an effort to put the USMCA on Hse flr is not what some Dem ldrs think is the biggest problem to preventing them from doing impeachment before Christmas. But if they do try to do USMCA, it means impeachment will likely wait until January. USMCA still not in final form
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
He also noted that Pelosi is “the ultimate decision maker here,” while pointing out that former President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House on a Saturday before Christmas in 1998.
It’s very possible, according to some of Pelosi’s lieutenants, that impeachment COULD wait until next year. But Pelosi is the ultimate decision maker here. It’s her call if Hse Dems decide to put impeachment on the flr before Christmas
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
Dems could be running into a problem with flr traffic this month if they try to do impeachment before Christmas. But not that the House impeached President Bill Clinton in a rare Saturday session – December 19, 1998 – just before Christmas.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 4, 2019
Nevertheless, the House Judiciary Committee is moving ahead with another impeachment hearing on Wednesday while some speculate that Pelosi doesn’t currently have the votes to hold a full impeachment vote at this time.
The Democrat leader has indicated that court battles and stone-walling by the White House will not stop the impeachment freight train, even if it is more of a train wreck for lawmakers in the party who face re-election battles ahead.
“They keep taking it to court and, no, we’re not going to wait till the courts decide,” Pelosi told reporters last month. “That might be information that’s available to the Senate in terms of how far we go and when we go. But … we can’t wait for that because again, it’s a technique. It’s obstruction of justice.”
Rep. Val Demings indicated last month that an expedited process by the Judiciary Committee and an end to the proceedings before the holiday break would be a great “gift” to Democrats.
“I would think it would make sense for us to start having those preliminary discussions,” the Florida Democrat who is a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, told Politico. “Wouldn’t that be a great Christmas gift for it to all wrap up by Christmas? I think it’s very possible.”
Conservative columnist Byron York noted that the “clock is ticking” for Democrats as an impeachment dragging past the holiday break could impact the primaries with the Iowa caucuses beginning Feb. 3.
“If Pelosi and Schiff can pass impeachment articles by Christmas, they can send the matter to the Senate for trial in January. Even on that accelerated schedule, the trial will probably overlap, at least a little, with voting. But if the House can’t get impeachment done by the holidays, the matter will certainly drag on through the primaries. So the race is on,” York wrote in an opinion piece published by the Washington Examiner.
Pelosi says Democrats are trying to remove Trump ‘prayerfully’ and ‘sadly’ and ‘with a heavy heart.’ In fact, anyone watching knows many Dems have been itching to impeach Trump since day he took office. https://t.co/UNuHLIuQg2
— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 2, 2019
Wednesday’s hearing is set to include no fact witnesses and only four legal scholars – all but one of whom are Democrats.
Tomorrow, Democrats will get THREE constitutional lawyers and Republicans will only get ONE!
This entire process is unfair to not only @realDonaldTrump, but the American People!#StopTheSchiffShow pic.twitter.com/gDfqHco5vo
— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) December 3, 2019
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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