Democrats are finally advancing impeachment — but Pelosi is still reluctant: report

Democrats have finally begun an official impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. And a big reason for that is that impeachment backers have swayed the most critical ally of all: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — one of the House's key investigative bodies and the one responsible for debating articles of impeachment.

According to Politico, one person is still not sold on impeachment, however: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Pelosi recently fumed to members of her caucus that the Judiciary Committee is moving too fast and is laying out a roadmap to impeachment without having whipped the votes to do it. "Feel free to leak this," she said.

Pelosi has made clear that she is not inherently opposed to impeachment, but that she believes it doesn't make sense in the current political environment. The problem from her perspective is that several key Democratic freshman lawmakers, many of whom were elected to ancestrally GOP suburbs and dethroned powerful incumbents, promised their constituents not to back impeachment — and Pelosi worries that forcing them to go on the record either way about it would jeopardize their re-election, and Democrats' House majority.

Some caucus members, however, have suggested that Pelosi doesn't oppose the substance of what Nadler is doing — just the way it's being sold politically.

"I think the speaker wants to be careful of all the different members of the caucus," Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told Politico. "She doesn’t always want to use the word 'impeachment' but believe me, she signed off on every piece of what has been put forward."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) doesn't believe the disagreement is damaging to Democrats — but said their is certainly daylight between Pelosi and Nadler.

"Nadler is talking about law, Pelosi is talking about politics," said Raskin. "Nadler is looking at high crimes and misdemeanors, and we are inundated with them in the Judiciary Committee. But Pelosi is looking at the political side of it."