House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) suggested Tuesday an impeachment vote in the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives will occur before a 2020 Democrat nominee is chosen.
Nadler’s committee is spearheading the latest impeachment efforts in the House and planning to vote on a resolution outlining the scope of its impeachment probe in hopes that it would add a stronger sense of legitimacy to the inquiry. Although the House has yet to take a full vote on impeachment, as Democrats do not have a pro-impeachment majority, Nadler said a House vote on impeachment will likely take place before the Democrat party chooses its presidential nominee.
If his timeline comes to fruition, it would push some candidates – particularly those who are currently serving in the House and Senate – to take a decisive position on impeachment.
“Candidates for the president are going to run on whatever they run on,” Nadler told the Washington Examiner. “By the time of the campaign, the president will or will not have been impeached.”
“It will be a moot issue at that point, and unless the candidate is a member of the House who has to vote or is in the Senate, then they’ll have to vote,” Nadler said of the Democrat presidential candidates who will be forced to take a stance.
Top tier candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have expressed support for impeaching the president.
“I read the Mueller report the day it came out. And when I got to the end, I did not stick my finger in the air and ask about the politics. I did not hesitate,” Warren told April Ryan at the NAACP convention in July.
“I read it. I knew what it said and I concluded first that this is a man who has broken the law and he should be impeached,” she continued.
“We have to make clear: No one is above the law ― not even the president of the United States,” she added. “It is time to bring impeachment charges against him.”
Sanders also expressed support for an impeachment inquiry in June.
“We have a president who thinks he is above the law. The House should immediately begin impeachment inquiries,” he wrote:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has repeatedly stiff-armed the progressive flank’s impeachment push, suggested this week that her caucus is united and working “together on these things.”
“I think you should characterize it [the resolution] for what it is,” Pelosi told Fox News. “It’s a continuation of what we have been doing. You know, we all work together on these things.”