House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) (Photo: Screen capture)

(CNSNews.com) - "The White House is just crying out for impeachment," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a news conference on Thursday.



She said that’s why President Trump “flipped” on Wednesday – “because he didn't see a rush to impeachment coming out of our caucus.”

(A short time later, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called Pelosi's remarks untrue and "irresponsible.")

Pelosi told her news conference that President Trump canceled his meeting with Democrat leaders yesterday, not because Pelosi had just accused him of engaging in a "cover-up," but because he was upset that Democrats are not "on a path to impeachment."

Now I truly believe that the president has a bag of tricks and the White House has a bag of tricks that they save for certain occasions. They don't necessarily apply to the occasion, but they're a distraction, which (he’s) a master of distraction. We will all agree on that. That's something he does well to distract from problems that he has. He changes -- and tries to change the subject. And while he tried to say it's because I said “cover-up” -- We've been saying cover-up for a while, and our 9 o’clock meeting was a meeting we have anyway. So it had nothing to do with him.



But I think what really got to him was these court cases and the fact that the House Democratic Caucus is not on a path to impeachment, and that's where he wants us to be. And when he saw that that was not happening, that again -- with the cover-up, which he understands is true, just struck a cord. So it’s really sad...

Pelosi repeated that she is praying for the President: "I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country," she said.

Asked if she might want to avoid provoking the president by using phrases such as "cover-up," Pelosi told the reporter, "You have bought into his excuse."

Pelosi said she and her Democrat colleagues will do what they need to do to defend and protect the Constitution. "And again, it's a question of the American people understanding that what he is doing is an assault on the Constitution of the United States."

In response to questions, Pelosi said Trump's refusal to honor subpoenas is obstruction of justice in plain sight, but she also noted that impeachment is "very divisive."

However, she added, if Democrats, through their investigations, "can get the facts to the American people, it may take us to a place that is unavoidable in terms of impeachment, or not, but we're not at that place."

Pelosi suggested that maybe Trump should take a leave of absence, since he indicated he will not work with Democrats until they end their various investigations.

"The White House is just crying out for impeachment,” she said at the end of the news conference. "That's why he flipped yesterday...that was what disappointed him, because he didn't see a rush to impeachment coming out of our caucus in our 9 o’clock meeting, which he thought was called specifically for him."