House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks at the Public Policy Institute of California on Aug. 22 in San Francisco. | Eric Risberg/AP Photo Pelosi: Tuesday was Trump’s ‘day of reckoning’

SAN FRANCISCO — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Thursday downplayed the growing Democratic calls for the impeachment of Donald Trump, saying that the “president’s day of reckoning” came this week and underscores the need to safeguard special counsel Robert Mueller from any possible White House retribution.

“What happened yesterday advances the argument to protect the Mueller investigation,” she told reporters following a speech Thursday at the Public Policy Institute in San Francisco. Referring to Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, the conviction of the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and the indictment of GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, she called Tuesday “a sad day for America.”


"[The] culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence is so pervasive and it's in the White House ... what they're doing is stunning to behold,’’ she told the audience.

Asked whether the increased talk of impeachment among some Democrats has been advanced by the headline-grabbing developments, Pelosi said: “I’ve always said that what we have to do is bring people together. If there’s evidence that the president should be impeached, let that emerge. But for us, our responsibility is to improve the lives of the American people — lower their health care costs, increase their paycheck and make government work for them.”

“We have a responsibility to protect and defend our Constitution. And we will do that. And we will hold the president accountable,’’ she said of Democrats.

“I think Republicans would like us to run with the subject of impeachment,’’ she said, warning, “Let me say this about impeachment: you can’t be political about it. You can’t be political in doing it. And you can’t be political in not doing it. We have to seek the truth.”

Pelosi, in response to questions, addressed another issue that has been taken up by Republicans — and the president — as evidence that Democrats are in favor of open borders: the murder of a young Iowa woman, Mollie Tibbetts, whose death has been seized on by the president as an example of lax border security. On Tuesday, authorities charged a man who they said is an undocumented immigrant in the slaying of the 20-year-old college student.

“It’s a sad thing ... any death is a sad thing,’’ Pelosi said. “But the person accused of killing her worked for a Republican employer. So it all points to the fact that these things happen, they are terrible and tragic. And every one of them is a heartbreak. But we really do need to have comprehensive immigration reform — and some of the same people who hire people are opposing comprehensive immigration reform.”

Asked about wanting to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — which Trump accused her of in a video released Thursday — Pelosi told the PPIC audience: "I don't agree with that at all.''

While she said some reform of ICE policies may be in order, she added it’s clear that accomplishing that is "going to require having to win the election." But she warned that calls to abolish ICE entirely "gives grist to the mill" of those who say Democrats want open borders.

“That's just not true,’’ Pelosi said.