A conversation with the speaker of the House on impeachment, leadership and 2020.

As the House of Representatives prepares for a full v**e on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi sees high stakes at every turn — politically, constitutionally, even for the basic rule of law.

“If we allow one president — any president, no matter who she or he may be — to go down this path, we are saying goodbye to the republic and hello to a president-king,” Pelosi said in a Dec. 10 interview.


At last week’s Women Rule summit in Washington, Pelosi spoke with POLITICO’s Anna Palmer about the impeachment process, her decades-long effort to get more women elected to Congress and why it’s not enough for women to simply have a seat at the table.

What follows is a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and readability. For more, listen to the interview on the newest episode of Women Rule.

On Impeachment
Anna Palmer, POLITICO: One of the biggest criticisms of the process has been the speed at which the House Democrats are moving.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: [With incredulity] Speed?

Palmer: Seriously, though — seriously.

Pelosi: It’s been going on for 22 months, OK? Two and a half years, actually.

Palmer: There has been some criticism, though, about whether or not you should move forward before the end of the year, or wait for the courts. Why do you think now is the time to move?

Pelosi: Well, I think we’re not moving with speed. This — was it two and a half years ago that they initiated the Mueller investigation? It is not about speed; it’s about urgency.

One of the charges against the president of the United States is that he was violating his oath of office by asking a foreign government to intervene in our e******n, undermining the integrity of our e******ns. If we did not hold him accountable, he would continue to undermine our e******n. Nothing less is at stake than the central point of our democracy: a free and f**r e******n, not disrupted by foreign powers.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/18/pelosi-impeachment-trump-v**e-086468

Cleveland.com.

"Jordan is being credibly accused by some of knowingly turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by a team doctor when Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1994.

At least five people – four of them former wrestlers and one of them a longtime friend – have said Jordan had to have known former OSU team doctor Richard Strauss was on a sexual rampage that would include -- according to OSU -- 1,429 sexual assaults and 47 rapes of student patients during Strauss’ time at the school (1978 to 1998) prior to his suicide in 2005."

It's a shame that Jordan couldn't go after the sex pervert as aggressively as he went after our dedicated employees of the diplomat corps. He could have prevented much of the abuse, but he just looked the other way.