Pro-impeachment Dems hope looming clashes with Trump will sway Pelosi

“The Hamlet act is, I think, wearing thin, and it’s becoming untenable and intellectually strange.”But Democrats eager to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump fear they’re running out of time to persuade Pelosi to change course before presidential politics consumes Washington.The House returns from a weeklong recess on Monday a few days after special counsel Robert Mueller ratcheted up pressure on lawmakers by emphasizing that Congress is the venue for holding a law-breaking president accountable. That’s why we have to get the contempt citations on the floor of the House as soon as possible, which I’ve been pushing for.”Nadler also threw cold water on some Democrats’ urgency to begin impeachment proceedings before the 2020 campaign is in full swing, saying it’s important to send a message to future presidents about their conduct.“[Trump’s] reelection would be an absolute catastrophe,” Nadler said. Holding public hearings is essential for moving public opinion in favor of impeachment, Democrats say.“Part of the function of Congress, just the same as the Watergate hearings 40 years ago, [is] to have a dialogue with the American people so people can make informed decisions and know what’s going on,” Nadler said.In all, the ranks of pro-impeachment Democrats swelled to more than 50 through the end of May — but that’s less than a quarter of the more than 230 House Democrats. Six committees have been investigating aspects of Trump’s personal conduct and financial dealings, but Trump’s all-out resistance has mired their efforts in a battle over process-related minutiae rather than the details of Mueller’s findings.Democrats intend to change that focus in June, promising a torrent of hearings on the dozen instances of possible obstruction of justice that Mueller examined, as well as testimony from former federal prosecutors — including Republicans — who say Trump would have been indicted were he not the president.A senior House Democratic aide said June will be a particularly important test for the Judiciary Committee — the forum for these hearings, as well as any potential impeachment battle — to make the most of Mueller’s words and the substance of his report, which paints a damning picture of a chaotic White House and president seeking to thwart Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.“It’s a crucial month for that particular committee because Mueller did give us a gift and an opportunity to refocus the narrative back to the substance of the report,” the aide said.