Nancy Pelosi accuses President McCarthy of ‘playing politics’ in considering scrapping Donald Trump’s impeachment trial

Nancy Pelosi said the House “had no choice” but to impeach Donald Trump when he was in office, saying current President Kevin McCarthy is acting out of the former president’s cowardice.

The former speaker of the House of Representatives called the Republicans still in Trump’s pocket “pathetic.”

Trump revealed last week that he received a letter from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith informing the former president that he is the subject of the investigation into the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot.

Meanwhile, reports surfaced that McCarthy promised Trump that he would get the House to vote to scrap his two impeachments before the August recess. He denies these claims.

Following the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters trying to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, the then-Democratic controlled House of Representatives moved to impeach him a second time.

President Kevin McCarthy has denied reports that he promised to remove Trump from impeachment rather than endorsing him in the 2024 election.

Ten Republicans voted with the Democrats in favor of impeachment for the second time. However, the charges were prevented from being brought in the highly divided Senate.

“Well, the president was impeached because we had no choice,” Pelosi explained on CNN’s State of the Union show Sunday morning. He had undermined our national security, endangered the well-being of our country. I was very careful in advancing any impeachment.

“But when the president made that phone call in terms of Ukraine, there was no other choice. We had no other choice,” insisted the California Democrat. He must be charged.

“Kevin is, you know, playing politics,” he added of his successor in the House. It’s not even clear if he can constitutionally remove those things. If he wants to put his members on the spot, his members on hard races on the spot, it’s a decision he has to make. But this is not responsible.

Politico reported Thursday that the former president is furious that the Speaker claimed last month that he might not be the best Republican candidate for 2024.

‘He needs to back me up today!’ Trump reportedly flew into a rage while he was addressing a campaign event in New Hampshire.

McCarthy still doesn’t want to endorse anyone for fear it might hurt moderate members of his party who want to distance themselves from Trump.

Trump reportedly lobbied McCarthy to endorse him, but he agreed that removing impeachment was a good alternative.

“I support removal, but there’s no deal,” the California Republican told NBC.

Asked even about the prospects of pledging to remove Trump’s impeachment, Pelosi said, “This is not about the flag still being there.” It’s about being afraid.

“As I’ve said before, Donald Trump is the puppeteer,” he added in his interview with Dana Bash. ‘And what does he do all the time but shine light on the strings?’

These people look pathetic.

A source close to Trump who was familiar with the conversation between the Speaker and the former president said McCarthy promised he would expunge his impeachment record rather than endorse him.

Trump was first impeached in September 2019 over a call he made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressing him to announce investigations into Hunter and now President Joe Biden withholding $400 million in military aid approved by Congress.

Trump’s second indictment came after he left office in February 2021. While the House voted that Trump incited an insurrection, the Senate, which requires a two-thirds vote, voted to acquit him on both the first and second indictments.

Asked if she thinks Trump committed a crime on Jan. 6, Pelosu said, “The president is not above the law.”

‘We saw what happened. It was very clear. It’s heartbreaking,” he added. “We always have to make sure that it’s about the rule of law and free speech and all that stuff. And he has… I mean, the courts will act. He is…innocent until proven guilty.

A vote to clear Trump of January 6-related wrongdoing puts moderate Republicans back on the registry, something Democrats can use against those members in the next election.

But McCarthy also owes the salvation of his House leadership bid to several Trump-aligned members, such as Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called the former president on the phone to put pressure on ‘Never Kevin’ lawmakers.

McCarthy managed to be caught between a rock and a hard place Thursday by denying the promise was made.

First, a McCarthy aide told Politico that the deal hadn’t closed, followed by McCarthy saying the same thing to NBC.

“I support removal, but there’s no deal,” the California Republican said.