Pelosi Not Considering Another Trump Impeachment, Says Its Not ‘Worth the Trouble’

Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to members of the media in Washington, on March 13, 2020. Alex Wong/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she is not considering pursuing impeachment charges against President Donald Trump as a way to delay confirming his nominee for the Supreme Court.

“I don’t think he’s worth the trouble at this point,” she told reporters Thursday. Exactly one year ago on Sept. 24, 2019, Pelosi announced impeachment charges against Trump, leading to a monthslong inquiry in the House before the Senate voted to acquit him on several charges in February 2020.

During an interview on ABC News’s “This Week” program earlier this week, Pelosi was asked if she and House Democrats would attempt to impeach Trump or Attorney General William Barr to delay confirming a Trump nominee. She demurred.

“We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now. But the fact is we have a big challenge in our country,” Pelosi said. “This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of the faces of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party, said she wants to see impeachment proceedings against Attorney General William Barr.

“I think Barr should have been impeached a long time ago, and he’s absolutely unfit for office. Now, whether that leads to impeachment proceedings or not, I think it’s a question between the House Judiciary Committee and the state of their investigation as well as the speaker’s judgment,” she told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t think [Trump] filling [a Supreme Court seat] is an impeachable offense, but I do think he’s committed plenty of other impeachable offenses.”

This prompted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to announce that he would pursue an attempt to oust Pelosi.

“The president is supposed to move forward, and they will. The Senate is supposed to take the action, and they will—it’s their constitutional right and they are following through,” he told reporters in Washington.

“I will make you this one promise, listening to the speaker on television this weekend, if she tries to move for an impeachment based upon the president following the Constitution, I think there will be a move on the floor to have her no longer, or the question of her being speaker. She may think she has a quiver. We do, too.”

But some Democrats in Congress said it would be a poor choice to impeach Trump to delay the Supreme Court nomination.

“Foolish idea,” Kaine said Monday on “MSNBC Live” when asked whether he supports impeaching Trump or Barr in an effort to delay the nomination process. “I can’t see virtually any Senate Democrats agreeing with it,” he added.

After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Sept. 18, Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.) said they would move to vote on his nomination the vacant seat. It prompted Democrats to cry foul, saying they should wait until the November election is over.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.