Nancy Pelosi Announces First Vote on Impeachment Inquiry To Be Held This Week

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (Right) and Senator Chuck Schumer (Left) in 2018 Photo by Shutterstock

By Aaron Sincere Kershaw

Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that a vote will be held for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the President's alleged abuse of power.

Pelosi's decision comes as pressure swells from Republican lawmakers attempting to force moderate Democrats -from states competitive electorally- to go on the record with their position on impeachment.

The inquiry, which was born out of a whistleblower’s complaint of a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been under attack by the GOP for it’s “process” and “lack of transparency”.

Pelosi emphasized in a letter to her House colleagues that the vote only “affirms the ongoing, existing investigation”. Pelosi rejects the notion that a vote was required to establish the impeachment inquiry’s legitimacy.

Though the inquiry was made formal in late September, Republican lawmakers who have supported the Trump Administration’s stonewalling of documents and testimony will soon have to contend with their premise of illegitimacy being erased.

Democrats in the House will need at least 218 of their 233 held seats to vote in favor of continuing the inquiry to “affirm” they shall proceed.

It should be discerned that this is not a vote to approve articles of impeachment that would move to the Senate for an impeachment trial. The vote is simply to clarify for the public the rules, procedures, and how the impeachment proceedings will continue.

The House rules which allow the testimony of witnesses to be heard in closed-door sessions are at the center of high scrutiny within the GOP for a lack of transparency. However, these rules were established in 2015 under a Republican majority in the House of Representatives and signed by former-House Speaker John Boehner.

This contradiction ignored by Republicans serves as the most recent example of politicians trading established principles for political expediency.