House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) swatted down a suggestion this week that she has been “toying” with the idea of impeachment.
Pelosi appeared with Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Friday for a press conference in which she announced her endorsement of Raskin’s bill that would set up a “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office Act.”
The commission would evaluate whether the president is capable of fulfilling his duties as president. In a press release, Pelosi’s office said, “The legislation will create the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office, the body and process called for in the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to enable Congress to help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership in the highest office in the Executive Branch of government.”
When a reporter told Pelosi that she had been “toying with the idea of impeachment,” the Speaker shot back, “I was not toying with the idea of impeachment. Let’s not have a predicate that did not exist.”
See Pelosi’s remarks below:
Speaker Pelosi shuts down a reporter for falsely claiming that she was ‘toying with the idea of impeachment’ pic.twitter.com/c62HSMWFZP
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) October 9, 2020
The legislation comes at an incredibly crowded moment in Washington, D.C. Negotiations on another stimulus package have come on-and-off the table with frustration, and the Republicans are hoping to seat a Supreme Court justice — all of this happening less than a month before the presidential election.
While Trump was repeatedly referenced during the press conference, Pelosi made it clear that the legislation is not directed at the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Pelosi: ‘This is not about Pres. Trump. He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need to create a process for future presidents … a president’s fitness for office must be determined by science and facts’ pic.twitter.com/H216enTxQX
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) October 9, 2020
The speaker told reporters, “This is not about President Trump. He will face the judgment of the voters but he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”