House Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to cool impeachment fever just before recess, but her colleagues calling for impeachment say the detente won't last. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo congress ‘We’re not at that place’: Pelosi gets breathing room on impeachment The speaker heads into recess having tamped down growing calls to remove Trump from office.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi just bought a little more time.

The California Democrat sent lawmakers out the door Thursday for a 10-day Memorial Day break after tamping down swelling demands from House Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.


But with Trump intent on defying Democrats on every investigative front, many lawmakers in the party’s growing pro-impeachment wing say the detente won’t last.

“I do think it's inevitable. And I think timing is something we have to be very careful about,” said Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar, one of the Democrats who came out in favor of impeachment for the first time this week.

“I know there should not be political considerations, but in practical terms the longer we wait, my fear is the closer we get to political season,” added the freshman Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee.

Pelosi and her top deputies are hoping to run out the clock on impeachment, preferring to beat Trump at the ballot box, lawmakers and aides say privately. The closer the calendar drifts toward 2020, the less appetite they think there will be to opening impeachment proceedings, which are sure to fail in the GOP-controlled Senate and which senior Democrats fear could imperil their chances of holding onto the House next year.

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After working to mollify the party’s restive left flank this week by pointing to a pair of legal victories in their oversight battle with Trump, Democrats were ushered into the recess with new talking points from the caucus' messaging arm that were conspicuously silent on impeachment.

During the final set of House votes, Democrats were handed a one-page messaging paper that urged lawmakers to talk up the party’s work on health care, infrastructure and weeding out corruption.

Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), hope a little time and distance away from Washington and Trump’s provocations will ease some anxieties and reinforce leadership calls to stay the course and continue their step-by-step, methodical approach to investigating the president.

“The president’s behavior in terms of his obstruction of justice... yes, these could be impeachable offenses,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday. “If we can get the facts to the American people through our investigation, it may take us to a place that is unavoidable in terms of impeachment or not. But we’re not at that place.”

But Pelosi’s high-profile clash with Trump on Thursday only solidified the positions of lawmakers on all sides of the debate, leaving pent-up frustration likely to flare the next time the White House attempts to freeze out congressional investigators.

More than two-dozen rank-and-file lawmakers have already said they want to take the first step toward ousting Trump from office — opening an impeachment inquiry — and several more say further acts of defiance from the White House will persuade them, too.

“If we’re not able to fulfill our oversight duties because of his cover-up of corruption then… he puts himself into the position where the House has to [act], in order to fulfill our obligations under the Constitution,” said Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), who is close to leadership and backs Pelosi’s strategy. “There’s no place to turn.”

The real test, she said, will be how the Trump administration responds if and when the courts order him to comply with Democrats’ growing set of subpoenas. The caucus scored two legal victories this week when federal judges overruled Trump’s attempt to block lawmakers from obtaining some of his financial documents.

“The executive branch cannot ignore those subpoenas,” Kuster said. “And I think what we want to do is go through that process. The rule of law is paramount. Then we’ll know.”

With her caucus increasingly irate over the White House’s stonewalling, Pelosi has taken a notably harsher tone toward Trump in public. Twice this week, Pelosi went as far as to say that his behavior could be seen as impeachable offenses.

And Pelosi tore into Trump during her weekly press conference Thursday, saying he is not in control of the White House and calling on his family to stage “an intervention.” But the speaker remains steadfast against launching impeachment proceedings, believing it would consume the Democratic agenda and hurt them at the polls in 2020.

In private, Pelosi’s message has been largely the same. In a closed-door meeting with lawmakers Thursday, Pelosi again urged Democrats to resist the urge to discuss impeachment, arguing that it would only play into the president’s hand.

“His actions are villainous to the constitution of the United States,” she told House Democrats, according to multiple sources. But, she added, “He wants to be impeached, so he can be exonerated by the Senate.”

Democratic leaders are looking for ways to keep the caucus on board when Congress returns this summer. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler divulged details to the caucus on Thursday about the next steps for a long-awaited vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt. Nadler is pushing for that vote the first week lawmakers return.

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler is pushing for a vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt soon after recess. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

And Nadler also suggested Democrats consider voting to streamline the process when they return in June, allowing committees to hold people in contempt of Congress without needing a full House vote.

Still, a growing number of rank-and-file Democrats say they believe a more robust debate on impeachment is inevitable if, or when, Trump orders his administration to ignore the judicial branch.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a 2020 presidential candidate who has notably refrained from talk of impeachment, said he would likely be forced to go there if Trump refuses to comply with the courts.

“That’s a constitutional crisis,” Ryan said. “Then he’s really going to lose public opinion in a lot of ways. But that will really be it.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who said he is on the brink of backing impeachment, said his breaking point will likely come with the testimony of special counsel Robert Mueller.

“When Mueller is able to sit and explain to the American public his reasoning behind what he presented and what he didn’t present,” Cleaver said. “Anybody whose mind is not made up after Mueller is a professional procrastinator.”

But Democrats are still struggling to secure Mueller’s testimony, and some on the Judiciary Committee have begun to discuss a subpoena — forcing one more issue into the courts.

The impeachment debate, which has been simmering for a while, grew more intense this week after Trump instructed former White House Counsel Don McGahn to defy the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena for documents and public testimony.

By Wednesday, nearly half of the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic roster publicly backed an impeachment inquiry, arguing that the president was engaging in a cover-up to prevent damning witness accounts from coming to light.

Tensions are expected to resurface in early June, when the White House must respond to a slew of subpoenas for other former top White House aides, including Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson.

The White House is expected to maintain its argument that Trump can block his former aides from testifying on Capitol Hill, which could spur more Democratic lawmakers to call for impeachment proceedings.

“There's no doubt in my mind that he's going to continue to resist, and that this will ultimately end up in court,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), who does not back impeachment at this time.

“So far, we've had two favorable rulings in the lower courts,” he added. “It could very possibly be that his continued contempt and resistance does step over the line.”