Former Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel rejected a suggestion by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that the House would impeach President Trump again should he nominate someone to fill the Supreme Court seat left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after she passed away on Friday.
Emanuel, a Democrat, appeared on ABC News’ “This Week” with host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday to discuss the ongoing negotiations and debates over the future of the Supreme Court. Ginsburg died on Friday from complications from pancreatic cancer.
Emanuel asserted that Trump should not move forward with nominating a new justice this close to the 2020 election because Trump never won the popular vote, and looks unlikely to do so based on polling. Emanuel said that Trump making such a move would amount to “tyranny of a minority.”
You know, one thing that has not been brought up, George, President Trump has never received the popular vote. And the idea that you’d be nominating a person—not only did you not get the popular vote, it’s impossible at this point based on all the polling for him to actually win the popular vote this time, as well, and that is the tyranny of a minority.
And the idea that he didn’t have the votes, or that somehow he was elected to do this as [Sen. Ted Cruz] says—no he wasn’t. He never even received the popular vote for this effort, and this proves to me once again when you look at [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell], you look at [Sen. Lindsey Graham], what they said, it’s what I’ve always said about Republicans from Washington: they’re firm in their opinions; it’s their principles they’re flexible on.
The former Chicago mayor attempted to downplay Pelosi’s remarks from an earlier Sunday interview in which she suggested that impeachment is on the table as an “arrow” against Trump. Emanuel responded to a question from Stephanopoulos about potentially impeaching Trump:
The reason I reject that politics—and I understand the speaker, I would never underestimate her to look at all of her efforts and all her tools—but the idea of talking about impeachment as somehow retribution, that is what is corrosive to our political system, that somehow we have to one-up them. I actually think when you look at Ginsburg, one of the things people loved about her was even when she disagreed with Scalia, she had a friendship. And that’s why I think one of the most iconic pictures of this week that’s going to pay to Joe Biden’s benefit is that picture where he elbow-bumped the gentleman in Minnesota who was protesting him, and he said, “I will also be your president.”
That is the America people are yearning for. Not the Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, “Even when we don’t have a majority, we’re gonna ram something through and then destroy the fabric of this country.” It’s not in the spirit of what Ginsburg [and] Scalia’s friendship was, which people yearned for and admired. Even when they disagreed, they heard each other, and that’s what President Clinton talked about, and that’s why that picture of Joe Biden in Minnesota will stand the test of time.
Rahm Emanuel says impeachment of Trump as retribution for potential confirmation of his SCOTUS pick in lame duck session is “corrosive” politics and GOP ramming a confirmation through is “not in the spirit of what Ginsburg and Scalia’s friendship was.” https://t.co/xqJquWQNUv pic.twitter.com/u5t3hvacpe
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 20, 2020
Pelosi had refused to dismiss impeachment as a potential route forward for House Democrats during an interview with Stephanopoulos earlier.
As The Daily Wire reports:
ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, a Democrat, asked Pelosi about the possibility that Democrats could impeach Trump to stop him from filling the seat.
“Some have mentioned the possibility, if they try to push through a nominee in a lame duck session, that you and the House could move to impeach President Trump or Attorney General Barr as a way of stalling and preventing the Senate from acting on this nomination,” Stephanopoulos said.
Pelosi responded, “Well, we have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now.”