[NYT] Mr. Nadler and other top leaders in the Democrat-controlled House are proceeding with caution, and believe that any attempt to bring impeachment charges against the president ‐ or even discuss them as a significant possibility ‐ could prompt a political backlash or lend credence to the president’s charge that the investigation is a witch hunt.
"There may be a lot to find," Mr. Nadler said in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, discussing the need for investigations rather than impeachment for now. "We’ve got to know what we’re dealing with, and it’s not just about paying off hush money to women about affairs."
"It’s about abuse of power. It’s about obstruction of justice. These are more important, more fundamental things," he said.
When asked how far he was willing to go, Mr. Nadler said: "I’ve been in politics a long time, and I am here to defend civil rights, civil liberties, due process and the rule of law. And if I think that impeachment will help that, I will support impeachment. And if I think impeachment is the wrong way to go to that, I will oppose it."
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, said on "This Week" immediately after Mr. Nadler’s appearance that the chairman’s caution on impeachment was masking his true intentions.
"I think Congressman Nadler decided to impeach the president the day the president won the election," Mr. McCarthy said. "He talks about impeachment before he even became chairman and then he says, ’You’ve got to persuade people to get there.’ There’s nothing that the president did wrong." |