Pelosi: Every day involved in impeachment is a sad day for America

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference today that every day that we are involved in this impeachment is a sad day for America.

Pelosi was talking to reporters before the House managers officially present the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

“I have said over and over again: every day that we are involved in this impeachment is a sad day for America and yesterday was one when we were given no choice but to send to the Senate two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, the president of the United States,” said the House speaker.

She added, “President necessitated this by his abusive power and obstruction of Congress, and his actions, which undermined our national security, violated his oath of office to protect and defend the constitution and jeopardize the integrity of our elections.”

When asked what was her response to Senate Republicans who say they shouldn’t have to consider new evidence like the Parnas material because it wasn’t included in the House investigation, Pelosi said they are afraid of the truth.

“Well, they are afraid of the truth,” Pelosi responded. “The American people have seen the allegations, and they are allegations, and we need to see more evidence that would be contained in the documentation. This is just another avoiding of the facts and the truth on their part. They don’t want to see documents, they don’t want to hear from eyewitnesses, they want to ignore anything new that comes up.”

She added, “We saw a strong case and infallible, undeniable case for the impeachment of the president so that no future president would ever think that she or he could get away with what president trump has been getting away with in his view. Any further evidence should not be avoided and now the ball is in the court of the Senate. Public opinion will have a lot to do with this. Since we passed ours and then sent it over, public opinion has grown enormously for seeing witnesses, eyewitnesses and documentation and they will just have to contend with the public on that.”

Another journalist asked if Pelosi could lay out why those documents were being released now and whether more might be coming, mentioning that Republican Senator Susan Collins said the timing of the Parnas documents was perplexing to her.

“Well, they were released now because that’s when they were obtained,” replied Pelosi. “And then his going further and to public interviews on that is very compelling, but again why would they not want to find, and there are other circumstances. If somebody like Parnas came forward and there was evidence, there was reason to believe some of that was factual, there would be a special prosecutor appointed.”

Adding to her reply, Pelosi called the attorney general “rogue,” saying, “Does anybody think that the rogue attorney general is going to appoint a special prosecutor, no, because he’s implicated in all of this. This is of an example of all of the president’s henchmen, and I hope that the senators do not become part of the president’s henchmen.”

Another reporter asked if Pelosi believed Parnas, given his interview last night, should be a witness of the trial, and if so did she believe he would be credible.

“Well, credible, it relates to the documents and the rest,” responded Pelosi. “It certainly raises questions. But now, I’ve appointed managers…and they have a responsibility and I’m very confident in how they would proceed. There seems to be documentation that would validate what Parnas is saying, but that all has to be subjected to scrutiny.”

The same journalist asked, “But Parnas is under federal indictment, so would he be a credible witness?”

“He’d be a credible witness if what he is testifying to relates to the issue at hand, the president’s behavior,” answered Pelosi. “But again, there is a process for how you go forward with witnesses and that’s not done in the basement of the congressional visitors center.”

Image credit - Public domain image via House Speaker website