If you're trying to impeach a president, you can't expect that president to seek bipartisan cooperation. Such cooperation requires a baseline of trust. Impeachment proceedings quite obviously destroy that trust or at least signify that it no longer exists.

That renders absurd House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion Wednesday morning that she wants to find "common ground" with President Trump on gun control, pharmaceutical drugs pricing, and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. As she spoke at a press conference, Pelosi was challenged on how she intends to pursue negotiations with Trump while simultaneously seeking to remove him from office. Pelosi seemed shocked by the question. The two issues, she said, said are entirely separate.

It was a ludicrous comment. Not only are impeachment and cooperation incompatible with Trump's ego and interests, but Pelosi went out of her way to bring Adam Schiff to her press conference — the overt partisan who has dedicated his career since Trump's inauguration to remove him from office. Hilariously, Schiff announced nothing new about the impeachment process, having apparently been brought along just to ensure that there would be a full room of reporters and live coverage of the press event.

Schiff has spent the past week making up quotes and attributing them to Trump. Whatever you think of Trump's dealings with Ukraine, it is not surprising that the president now views Schiff as his arch-nemesis. That raises the question once again: Why did Pelosi call this press conference alongside Schiff if she truly wants to keep open lines of bipartisan cooperation? Why did she tease him as being "cowardly" and "cruel?"

Trump has been relatively pleasant in his descriptions of Pelosi. There was potential, small but real, for the two leaders to continue their bipartisan discussions. Not any longer.

And don't listen to Pelosi's or Schiff's high-minded rhetoric about the founders. As with last Sunday, theirs is another partisan waltz.