Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is the latest in a line of Democrats to admit, sadly, that there’s no longer any point in pursuing impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
Waters, who made a name for herself leading the anti-Trump “Resistance” in Congress, even to the point of encouraging her supporters to “confront” members of the Trump administration whenever they saw them out and about in public, and repeatedly calling for impeachment hearings against Trump even before Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation had concluded, told Politico that her priorities have now changed.
“I think we do nothing now but concentrate on getting the information, getting that report,” Waters told the Washington, D.C. outlet.
Strangely, though, she seemed to admit that, even before Mueller released his findings, booting the president from office was nothing more than a pipe dream.
“[Impeachment has] never been discussed as a strategy for this caucus. It’s only a few of us,” she added.
Waters did leave the door open for returning to the possibility of impeachment if the Mueller report contains infomation that leads her and other “Resistance”-driven legislators to question the integrity of the Trump presidency — something that is probably a good bet — but her comments are still a sharp twist from what she said Sunday, just before Attorney General William Barr released his summary of findings to Congress and the public.
“This president has a way of trying to get into people’s heads and indoctrinate them,” she told MSNBC in an interview about the Mueller investigation. “He’s going try to conclude that this report is proof that there is no collusion and you have a lot of his sycophants who will take the nod from him and they’ll say the same thing.”
Democrats, Politico reports, do seem pretty relieved that impeachment is probably off the table for good. According to reports from caucus meetings held earlier this week, Democrats have pledged to ignore Mueller’s findings until the full report is released, which they hope will happen before this upcoming weekend. Otherwise, they’re working to demonstrate that the “no collusion” finding isn’t occupying their time.
“Privately, top Democrats said they were relieved that, at least for now, lawmakers insisting on Trump’s removal from office were likely to be much less vocal, allowing the caucus to potentially turn the focus to its legislative agenda, something they’ve struggled with since taking over the House in January,” Politico reports. “At a leadership meeting Monday night, Democratic leaders emphasized the need for lawmakers to highlight their loaded legislative schedule this week — from voting on a gender-pay bill to introducing sweeping health care legislation — and demonstrate that Democrats aren’t consumed with the Mueller report.”
There are still a few Democratic hangers-on. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is leading a group of approximately three legislators in drafting letters of impeachment, which she says she plans to bring to the floor shortly.