THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 | POLITICO | 11their rift over impeachment is get-
ting harder and harder to paper over
amid Democrats’ flailing messaging
on the topic and a growing divide
in the caucus.
Whether the two veteran law-
makers can get on the same page
will determine whether the party
avoids a rupture that threatens its
chances of holding on to the House
majority and beating Trump in
2020.
“I think the speaker wants to be
careful of all the different members
of the caucus,” said Rep. Pramila
Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the
Congressional Progressive Caucus
and a vocal impeachment advocate.
“She doesn’t always want to use the
word ‘impeachment,’ but believe
me, she signed off on every piece of
what has been put forward.”
Yet the gap between Pelosi and
Nadler has been on full display
lately.
The Judiciary Committee held
what it billed as its first “impeach-
ment hearing” on Tuesday with
former Trump campaign manager
Corey Lewandowski, whose out-
right refusal to answer questions
only bolstered Democrats’ im-
peachment investigation, Nadler
said.
But at the very same moment,
Pelosi was stressing in a private
meeting with moderate Democrats
that the caucus would be cautious
as it approaches whether to move
forward on impeachment, accord-
ing to multiple attendees.
“Nadler is talking about law,
Pelosi is talking about politics,”
said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a
member of the Judiciary Commit-
tee, when asked about the divide
between the two senior Democrats.
“Nadler is looking at high crimes
and misdemeanors, and we are in-
undated with them in the Judiciary
Committee. But Pelosi is looking at
the political side of it.”
Raskin, though, insisted the
Pelosi-Nadler split isn’t hurting
Democrats.
“I think it is fully, comprehen-
sively representing the divergent
opinion in the country what we
need to do, and it’s too early to
tell,” Raskin said. “Everyone wants
to jump to the end, to say, ‘W hat’s
the end of the story?’ But we’re just
in the middle of it.”
Nadler, one of the most aggres-
sive impeachment backers among
senior Democrats, has been care-
ful not to clash directly with Pelosi
since the start of his committee’s
probe.
But the New York Democrat has
ramped up his rhetoric over the
summer, declaring that the House
is in “formal impeachment pro-
ceedings” even as Pelosi has main-
tained her own careful message that
the House is only weighing the pos-
sibility. At a news conference last
week, she refused to even utter the
“i-word.”
Nadler has made clear where
he stands: Trump should be im-
peached. Now.
“Personally, I think the presi-
dent ought to be impeached,”
Nadler told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer
on Monday in his strongest com-
ments to date backing impeach-
ment. But Nadler also acknowl-
edged Democrats “cannot impeach
the president against the will of the
American people,” reiterating the
point Pelosi has hammered again
and again since she returned to the
speakership in January.
A recent POLITICO/MorningConsult poll of 1,994 registered
voters shows 37 percent of respon-
dents said they support beginning
impeachment proceedings, while
50 percent opposed doing so; 12
percent were undecided.
Pelosi has also expressed skepti-
cism with the notion of impeaching
Trump in the House only for him to
be acquitted in a Senate trial — and
then surely claim exoneration on
the campaign trail.
Several Democrats have specu-
lated that Nadler’s hard line on
impeachment is partly driven by
concerns with his political stand-
ing on the left in his New York City
district as he faces his toughest pri-
mary challenge in decades. Nadler
has also come under intense pres-
sure from Trump’s fiercest critics
on the Judiciary Committee, who
have actively lobbied for impeach-
ment for months.
Meanwhile, Nadler’s allies
blame Pelosi for the messaging
stumbles, pointing to a hard-to-
read strategy that has irked lib-
erals by refusing to definitivelysay whether the House is in an
impeachment inquiry.
In a statement to POLITICO, a
Nadler spokesman said Pelosi has
been “fully supportive of our inves-
tigative work,” from court filings to
hearing procedures.
“T here is no disagreement in the
investigative work we have before
us, and we will continue to work
closely with leadership as we move
forward,” Nadler spokesman Daniel
Schwarz added.
Pelosi aides added that Nadler
has coordinated with her office on
investigations, legal strategy and
messaging. Pelosi has signed off
on all the Judiciary Committee’s
court filings targeting the Trump
administration, which is where
the caucus first formally signaled
it was engaged in an impeachment
investigation.
“Speaker Pelosi has repeat-
edly said she supports Chairman
Nadler and House Judiciary’s in-
vestigation to determine whether
to recommend articles of impeach-
ment, its procedures and efforts touncover the truth for the American
people,” spokeswoman Ashley Eti-
enne wrote in a statement.
Yet privately, Pelosi has voiced
frustrations with Nadler’s com-
mittee, and not just that staff has
been moving ahead as though the
House were already in formal im-
peachment proceedings. She was
also concerned with reports that
Judiciary staff were lobbying at
least one of the panel’s members
who had not yet come out for a
formal impeachment inquiry, ac-
cording to a source familiar with
her frustrations.
Pelosi and Nadler have long been
hurtling down this path — clashing
behind closed doors even as they
tried to maintain a united front for
the cameras.
Nadler was deferential to Pelosi
for months, refusing to even say
publicly whether he supported
opening an impeachment inquiry.
Privately, Nadler was petitioning
Pelosi to greenlight a formal im-
peachment investigation within
his committee, arguing it would
streamline House Democrats’
sprawling Trump-related probes
across multiple panels.
But Nadler was repeatedly re-
buffed by Pelosi, who went so far
as to say she’d rather see Trump
“in prison” before she moved for-
ward with impeachment during one
particularly tense meeting in June.
Pelosi has also agreed to specific
language regarding impeachment
that her allies say Nadler has blown
past.
“She signed off on that, that’s
where Nadler should have stayed,”
one aide familiar with Pelosi’s
thinking said.
The clash underscores a simple
reality of the caucus: a vocal pro-
gressive wing is growing frustrated
with inaction, while vulnerable
moderates are begging to be shield-
ed from the glare of impeachment.
Nadler has become the driving
force for the first group, just as Pe-
losi protects the second.
“They have different jobs,” said
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), add-
ing that Pelosi is trying to appease
both factions.
“This role she’s playing is going
to be very important to protect
the caucus, and the majority, and
a lot of the new members,” he said,
“while also allowing the running
room for people like Mr. Nadler
and the Judiciary Committee to
proceed.”Nadler, Pelosi impeachment clash pits law vs. politics
IMPEACHMENT from page 1
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
From left, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler and
House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings are key players as Democrats try to oversee the Trump administration.Over the past few months, House
Democrats have been building sup-
port for impeachment within the
caucus. But they haven’t brought
the American people with them.
Even as nearly two-thirds of
Democratic members favor im-
peaching President Donald Trump
or at least opening an impeachment
inquiry, a POLITICO/Morning Con-
sult poll shows they haven’t made
the sale to voters. Only 37 percent
support beginning impeachment
proceedings, and half oppose it,
based on the survey of 1,994 reg-
istered voters. Just 12 percent of
voters are undecided.
Since the release of former spe-
cial counsel Robert Mueller’s report
in the spring, overall support for
impeachment has fluctuated be-
tween 35 percent and 38 percent.
Opposition has ranged from 46
percent to 53 percent.
Among Democrats, 7 in 10 sup-
port beginning impeachment
proceedings. Only 18 percent of
Democratic respondents opposed
impeachment, according to the
poll. Among registered voters who
said they intend to participate in a
Democratic presidential primary or
caucus in their states, 68 percent in-
dicated they want Congress to begin
impeachment proceedings against
Trump, and 20 percent did not.
Republican respondents werenear-lockstep in opposition to
impeachment: Only 6 percent said
they wanted to begin proceedings.
But independents tilted heavily
against impeaching, with 31 per-
cent wanting Congress to begin
impeachment proceedings, com-
pared with 50 percent who said they
think Congress should not begin
impeachment proceedings.
“Initiating impeachment pro-
ceedings against President Trump
remains a popular move among
the Democratic base, but it won’t
necessarily help them win voters
across the aisle,” said Tyler Sin-
clair, Morning Consult’s vice presi-
dent. He added that the “numbers
have marginally changed from Julyfollowing Robert Mueller’s testi-
mony on Capitol Hill, after which
34 percent of independents and 8
percent of Republicans supported
impeachment.”
Last week, the House Judiciary
Committee voted along party
lines to establish the parameters
of an impeachment inquiry. But
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has
downplayed the possibility that
Democrats would move to impeach
Trump, given the realities of public
opinion and the Republican-con-
trolled Senate.
While less than 40 percent of
voters support impeaching Trump,
the president is still in political
peril, the poll shows. His approvalrating stood at 43 percent and has
been mired in the low 40s for most
of the summer.
Just 37 percent said they will
“definitely” or “probably” vote to
reelect Trump next year, while 53
percent indicated they will “defi-
nitely” or “probably” vote for
someone else.
The POLITICO/Morning Consult
poll of 1,994 registered voters was
conducted Sept. 13-15 and has a
margin of error of plus or minus 2
percentage points.
Morning Consult is a nonparti-
san media and technology company
that provides data-driven research
and insights on politics, policy and
business strategy.BY STEVEN SHEPARD
Poll: Voters largely unswayed by Democrats’ impeachment push