Nancy Pelosi Confirms House Democrats ‘Will Not Be Having A Vote’ On Impeachment Inquiry


As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces increased scrutiny by President Donald Trump and the White House for not holding a formal House vote to greenlight the president’s impeachment inquiry, Pelosi made it clear on Tuesday that no such vote would be taking place.

According to The Hill, Pelosi came to the decision after surveying House caucuses on whether or not House Democrats should undergo formal procedures to vote on Trump’s impeachment inquiry, which was announced recently after a transcript of the president’s phone call to the Ukrainian president was made public.

“There’s no requirement that we have a vote, and so at this time we will not be having a vote,” Pelosi told reporters on Tuesday during a quick press briefing.

Trump and his administration allies have pressed the speaker to hold a formal vote, which they believe will level the political playing field and give Republican House members a say in the impeachment inquiry process, including affording them the power to subpoena witnesses.

Rep. Michael McCaul, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, echoed the administration’s sentiment, calling the process that Democrats are currently using an unfair one.

“The minority has been shut out of the process,” McCaul stated. “It is being done in a… classified briefing room behind closed doors when it should be in front of the American people so that all can see in a very transparent way the testimony of these witnesses.”

The Democrats’ lack of holding the official impeachment inquiry vote was cited as a primary reason why the Trump administration has made clear that they’re not interested in complying with Democrats in requests for information relating to the impeachment investigation.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to honor the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone said as much in a letter to Pelosi and several committee chairs last week, citing a lack of transparency in the process. Several other Trump associates have refused federal subpoenas, presumably at the direction of the White House.

As reported earlier by The Inquisitr, the latest high-profile Trump ally who has refused to comply with a Democrat-issued subpoena is none other than the president’s right hand, Vice President Mike Pence. On Tuesday, he said in a letter that some of the documents that Democrats seek are “clearly not vice-presidential records, pursuant to a self-proclaimed ‘impeachment inquiry.'”

The letter also cited the Democrats’s lack of a formal vote for the inquiry process and implied that never in U.S political history has a House Speaker launched such an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president “without a majority of the House of Representatives voting to authorize a constitutionally acceptable process.”

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