More than half of House Democrats now publically support impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, according to a tally compiled by Politico.
This week, the number of House Democrats who support impeachment crossed 118 out of 235 members after Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) announced his support, making him the 23rd Democrat lawmaker to back the president’s ouster following former special counsel Robert Mueller’s lackluster congressional testimonies on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
The development comes after the House Judiciary Committee announced the launch of its so-called “impeachment investigation.” Last Friday, the panel asked a judge to allow access to secret grand jury material underlying the Mueller report.
The House Judiciary Committee is also expected to go to court this week to try to enforce a subpoena against former White House counsel Donald McGahn, a key Mueller witness. That suit is expected to challenge the White House’s claim that former White House employees have “absolute immunity” from testifying before Congress.
Appearing Sunday on ABC’s This Week, Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) explained his committee is “investigating whether to approve articles of Impeachment before the committee.”
“We have impeachment resolutions before the committee. We are conducting investigations to determine whether we should report those impeachment resolutions to the House or whether we should draft our own and report them to the House,” Nadler said.
“We’re considering those resolutions. we’ll make a determination after we get more evidence as to the president’s crimes that we had from the Mueller report and also from other things, violations of the emoluments clause, his failure to defend the constitution against repeated Russian attacks,” he added. “We’re investigating whether to approve articles of Impeachment before the Committee.”
Despite growing support for impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appears unmoved by the efforts.
“No, I’m not trying to run out the clock,” Pelosi said during a press conference last week.“We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed — not one day sooner.”
“Everybody has the liberty and the luxury to espouse their own position and to criticize me for trying to go down the path in the most determined, positive way,” the California Democrat added. “Again, their advocacy for impeachment only gives me leverage.”
Earlier this month, the House voted 332-95 to table a resolution launching an impeachment inquiry introduced by Rep. Al Green (D-TX).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.