House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t sure the threshold for impeachment has been met for President Donald Trump — and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski was stunned.
The “Morning Joe” co-host opened Tuesday’s episode by reporting the president’s attorney had advised his former attorney to lie to Congress, and that Trump has advised the former White House counsel not to comply with a congressional testimony — and there’s a growing call among lawmakers for impeachment.
“Bipartisan support for impeachment has to be in the Senate,” Pelosi told Brzezinski. “In terms of Congressman (Justin) Amash, his voice speaks to the silence of so many other — all the other Republicans not to hold this president accountable for the oath of office that he takes to protect and defend the Constitution, respecting the co-equal branches of government.”
“Amash may be one voice, but the fact that it is in the absence of other voices, it speaks very loudly,” she added.
Brzezinski asked whether Amash had put more pressure on her, now that a Republican has made the case the threshold for impeachment had been met.
“No,” Pelosi said, and Brzezinski was stunned. “This isn’t about politics, it’s not about passion, it’s not about prejudice, it’s not about politics — it’s about patriotism and the presentation of the facts so that the American people can see why we’re going down a certain path.”
“I feel very confident that the American people know that they deserve to know the truth and that’s what we want to present to them,” Pelosi added, “in a way that they don’t perceive to be without the presentation of the facts.”
Brzezinski asked whether Congress should impeach Attorney General William Barr for lying under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The fact that the attorney general of the United States would lie to Congress again, we’re on the path of contempt for him,” Pelosi said. “That’s what I would hope.”
Brzezinski then challenged Pelosi to explain what the penalty would be for administration officials and White House associates who refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas.
“It depends,” Pelosi said. “In the Nixon articles of impeachment, Article III, is that he did not honor the subpoenas of the Congress of the United States, so that is an issue. Before they got to that place at that time they had a long investigation, and that’s what we’re doing now, then we have some options available to us.”
“One in particular is they’re saying you have no purpose for these subpoenas,” she added. “Well, under the Constitution, one of purposes would be to see if you want to go down the path of impeachment. There are other purposes as well. “
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