AUSTIN, Texas U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke Saturday night of the solemn duty of the House of Representatives to proceed with prayerful and careful inquiry into impeaching President Donald Trump, or risk losing the republic to a president she said does not understand that the Constitution does not grant him unlimited power.
Ive been very prayerful about this, Pelosi, a devout Catholic, said during a 115-minute on-stage interview at the Paramount Theatre with Evan Smith, founder and CEO of the Texas Tribune, closing the Tribunes three-day festival of politics and public policy in downtown Austin.
Im heartbroken about it, said Pelosi, who was persuaded to move forward with an impeachment inquiry by the revelation of Trumps recent phone conversation with the president of Ukraine.
He gave us no choice by shaking down the head of a country while withholding U.S. military assistance for, do me a favor and help in my campaign, Pelosi said. That gave us no choice.
This a very sad time for our country, she said. There is no joy in this.
I have been prayerful and careful, weighing the evidence about how strong is this? said Pelosi, who said she was not prejudging the outcome but was certain that the risk of inaction was too great a gamble.
I would just hope that there would be something exculpatory, something that would say, Oh, this is not what it seems to be. But thats not where we are right now, she said.
Instead, Pelosi said, I think right now there is a cover-up of a cover-up.
Asked about the potential political risk, perhaps even imperiling Democratic control of the House, Pelosi said, That doesnt matter matter. That doesnt matter. Because we cannot have a president of the United States undermining his oath of office, undermining national security and undermining the integrity of our elections. Our elections are the fundamental point of our democracy.
Pelosi recalled the story of the woman who asked Benjamin Franklin at the conclusion of the closed-door work of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to craft a guiding document for the new nation whether they had designed a republic or a monarchy.
A republic, Franklin reputedly replied, if you can keep it.
Thomas Paine said in the earliest and darkest days of the revolution, the times have found us, Pelosi said. Well we believe that the times have found us now. Not that we place ourselves in the category of greatness of our founders, but in the category of the urgency of the threat to our Constitution. And if the activity, this pattern of behavior were to prevail, and the president continues to ignore that Article 2 doesnt say he can do whatever he wants, then its over and well have the equivalent of a monarch. Article 2 of the Constitution prescribes the powers of the presidency.
Despite her tamping down any celebratory feelings Democrats might have at the prospect of impeaching the president, Pelosi was steely in her confidence that in this coming confrontation, the president had more than met his match.
I said to the president, and Im saying to you, youve come into my wheelhouse now, Pelosi said, with a Clint Eastwood make my day cool. I have 45 years of experience in intelligence.
You never bet against Nancy Pelosi, Smith said of Pelosi, a liberal from romantic San Francisco but also the daughter and sister and mayors of gritty Baltimore where she grew up, in his introduction.
For Smith, the ubiquitous ringmaster for his digital news organizations annual festival, the closing keynote by Pelosi was his best get yet.
