Dean Obeidallah: Nancy Pelosi was right about Trump's impeachment

[StarfishSaver]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., opened the debate Wednesday on whether to impeach President Donald Trump solemnly. And after Trump became only the third president in the history of our Republic to be impeached Wednesday evening, there was no joyous celebration — in fact, the speaker icily stared down some in her own party who applauded the vote on the House floor.

That Trump was successfully impeached says a lot about the level of frustration with Trump in Washington right now. But it is also a sweet, sweet victory for Nancy Pelosi, who has been second-guessed and criticized at every step in the process ... As a reminder, getting to this historic moment has been ugly. Pelosi was criticized by everyone from Trump to her fellow progressives, including myself. Obviously, Trump was outraged when she moved forward on impeachment. But many on the left felt she had moved too slowly, arguing she should have opened an impeachment inquiry right after special counsel Robert Mueller released his detailed report in April.

And criticize her we did. On my SiriusXM radio show, countless progressives slammed her for not pushing forward. Some asked if Trump was blackmailing her, or worse, pondered if Pelosi actually wanted Trump to win in 2020. I, too, wondered about the delay and urged Pelosi to proceed. I criticized the speaker for not listening to the Democratic base. I even wrote an article for CNN arguing that Pelosi’s apparent reluctance was helping Trump politically (at the time the president’s approval ratings were sliding upward.)

But I was wrong. In fact, all of us who pressured Pelosi to begin impeachment before she was ready were wrong.

Pelosi understood that despite the damning words of the Mueller report, Democrats needed more evidence, especially Democrats in swing states. Indeed, as Pelosi was rebuffing our calls to impeach this summer, only about 38 percent of all Americans supported impeaching Trump, with 54 percent opposed. And at the time, only about 100 members of the House Democratic caucus (out of 235 members) were publicly on board with impeaching Trump.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/nancy-pelosi-was-right-about-trump-s-impeachment-democrats-were-ncna1105401

[sheshe2]

1. Excellent read.

Dean Obeidallah is 100% correct.

[llmart]

2. Old Ladies Home Journal slogan...

"Never underestimate the power of a woman."

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. +1000!

[Mickju]

4. Yep

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. that third paragraph is astonishing

I thought Pelosi was very clear when she talked about Trump self-impeaching, and that the public must be behind it or it would fail. That paragraph reveals some vitriol and misunderstanding, in addition to the understandable frustration.