Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), in an exclusive interview with Hill.TV, broke with a growing number of progressive Democratic colleagues on whether it is time to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
“I’m not there yet, I believe that we need to be methodical, we need to make a case, and at the same time what I want to see is work on infrastructure to get the 2 trillion infrastructure bill, to work on lowering prescription drugs, all the other things that I can came to Congress to do,” Khanna said, adding “Do I think we need to have Bob Mueller testify, Don McGahn testify, absolutely. The committees need to do their work…but I’m not where some of my colleagues are in terms of formally starting any impeachment process.”
{mosads}Khanna expressed support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) efforts to contain the growing calls for impeachment within the Democratic caucus.
“Let me be clear; if Don McGahn doesn’t testify, it is time to open an impeachment inquiry,” House Judiciary Committee member David Cicilline (D-R.I.) told MSNBC Monday.
“The time has come to start an impeachment inquiry because the American people deserve to know the truth and to have the opportunity to judge the gravity of the evidence and charges leveled against the president,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), the vice chair of the Judiciary Committee, similarly told The New York Times.
Pelosi was reportedly confronted by members advocating for impeachment Monday night in a closed door meeting and has called a Wednesday meeting of her caucus to update them on investigations into Trump. The meeting is seen as an effort to mollify impeachment hardliners within her caucus.
The speaker has said publicly that she doesn’t believe impeachment would serve the Democratic party well politically and that the best way to defeat Trump is at the ballot box in 2020.
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