How to interpret what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders say about impeachment?
Perhaps this way: They are always looking for a new and better way to sell the product. Remember that they spent more than two years accusing President Trump of conspiring with Russia to fix the 2016 election, of being a tool of Vladimir Putin, of being a Russian asset. Then, in September, they turned on a dime to Ukraine.
They accused Trump of denying Ukraine “desperately needed,” “critical” aid as a way of getting dirt on a political opponent. They said he was guilty of a quid pro quo, then extortion, and then, after conducting a focus group to find a charge that would have the greatest impact, they accused him of bribery.
Now, after three months of focusing like a laser beam on Ukraine, they have returned to … Russia.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Pelosi tried to address the criticism that Democrats are rushing toward impeachment. Pelosi and her party have tried various explanations for their haste. She once said Democrats needed to strike while the iron was hot. Then, in recent days, Democrats have said the president must be immediately impeached because if he is not removed from office, he will meddle in the upcoming election — that is, he poses an imminent threat to the nation.
But on Thursday, Pelosi said Democrats have not acted in haste at all, because the current Ukraine investigation is actually a continuation of the two-and-a-half-year Russia investigation. In fact, it’s not about Ukraine at all. It’s still about Russia.
“This isn’t about Ukraine,” Pelosi said. “It’s about Russia. Who benefited by our withholding — withholding of that military assistance? Russia. It’s about Russia. Russia invading eastern Ukraine. Over 10,000 people, now maybe 13,000, some of them in the absence of our conveying that military assistance that was voted in a bipartisan way by the Congress of the United States. So sometimes people say, ‘Well, I don’t know about Ukraine. I don’t know that much about Ukraine.’ Well, our adversary in this is Russia. All roads lead to Putin. Understand that.”
Pelosi’s new Russia argument was an attempt to address the fact that some, perhaps many, Americans believe Ukraine, or any issue involving Ukraine, is simply not important enough to warrant the removal of a president.
The it’s-about-Russia pitch also happened to coincide with an internal Democratic debate about whether to include in impeachment articles allegations from the Robert Mueller investigation into the Trump-Russia affair. Remember that the special counsel could not establish that a conspiracy or coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign even occurred. In addition, he did not reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice. But the Mueller report listed examples of what Democrats say were obstruction, and some in the party have wanted to write an article of impeachment based on that part of Mueller’s findings.
In addition, Democrats have turned to anti-Russian rhetoric in recent impeachment proceedings. At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Democratic witness Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor, was asked why the president’s alleged abuse of power was so egregious that it merits impeachment.
“Because he invited the Russians, who are our longtime adversaries, into the [electoral] process,” Karlan answered. Later, Karlan adopted classic Cold War rhetoric when she said the U.S. must make sure “Ukraine remains strong and on the front line, so they fight the Russians there and we don’t have to fight them here,” she said.
So the Democratic case against the president has come full circle: Russia, Ukraine, and back to Russia. Perhaps that will appeal to the public in a way that earlier arguments did not. So far, though, impeachment polls have moved little. According to an average of polls by FiveThirtyEight, support for impeaching the president reached a high of 48.4% on Oct. 22. Now, it is 46.8%. Opposition was 43.4% on Oct. 22 and is 44.5% now.
That is almost no movement either way in more than six weeks — a time during which televised impeachment hearings were held and impeachment was a topic of nonstop discussion. So now, as Pelosi returns to Russia, it’s no surprise Democrats continue to search for a better way to sell the product.
