Washington Post: President Nancy Pelosi ‘Could Happen’

The Washington Post speculated Monday that it remains possible that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could become president.

The Washington Post unveiled a column Monday, speculating whether Pelosi could become president if President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence left office.

The writers, Robert Atkins and Adam Frankel, noted that it remains “far-fetched” that Trump and Pence could be forced from office over “abuse of power related to the administration’s dealings with Ukraine or other misdeeds.”

The Post piece arises as Democrats have moved towards an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the conversation, Trump asked Zelensky about a former Ukrainian prosecutor’s investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and his shady business dealings.

Democrats have contended that this amounts to asking a foreign power to interfere with an American presidential election, while Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have said that this does not amount to a quid pro quo.

The column writers compared Democrats’ current move to impeach the president to when former Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned amidst charges of tax evasion, which left the office of the vice president temporarily vacant in 1973. At that time, if President Richard Nixon were to have resigned or been impeached, House Speaker Carl Albert (D-OK) would have assumed the presidency.

The writers contended that because Pence has appeared to be a “witness” to the president’s conversation with Zelensky, the “prospect of the House speaker’s ascension is not as remote at is seemed just a week ago.”

Atkins and Frankel said that the chaos America currently faces lies with the president’s “heedless, indulgent, and volatile leadership,” not the Democrats moving towards another investigation to oust Trump.