‘Y’all think the president broke the law’: MSNBC analyst lectures Democrats for ‘losing’ on the impeachment question

The NBC news national affairs analyst blasted Congressional Democrats on Monday for losing the battle over impeachment.

John Heilemann joined the panel on "Deadline: White House" with Nicolle Wallace, following Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) becoming the first Republican congressman to back impeachment.

Former Republican Congressman David Jolly of Florida explained how he viewed the developments.

"Justin Amash has gone further than Nancy Pelosi did. I think we need to have Nancy Pelosi explain to the American people how she understands the Mueller report and if she understands it doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment, explain that," Jolly said. "But right now, all we’re getting is a policy argument from Nancy Pelosi and arguments fall far short of what we got from Justin Amash over the weekend."

MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heileman said Democrats are "losing" on both the politics and morality of impeachment.

"There’s not a Democrat, I believe -- not one -- who doesn’t believe the president hasn’t committed impeachable offenses on the basis of the Mueller report," Heilemann argued. "Not one."

"Democrats basically say, 'Well, the president is a bad guy, may have broken the law, the president has maybe has committed impeachable offenses but we have to get to the bottom, maybe we should impeach, maybe later we shall impeach.' The president says 'No collusion, no obstruction.' He’s winning the argument because he’s strong and wrong, but he’s strong and clear," he continued.

"Democrats are all over the place. I have heard maybe more than a dozen Democrats say, 'I believe the president has committed impeachable acts but we need to investigate it further' — what? Y’all think the president broke the law ... go and get the impeachment ball rolling."

"Even if there’s political risk, strong and wrong beats weak and right," he noted.

"I don’t think they’re wrong about this, they don’t think they’re wrong either. All they’re doing is vacillating and prevaricating and mollifying -- they’re stalling for time because they are afraid of what will happen if they lead," he said.

"If you think that guys, it’s time to go," he concluded. "Or stand up and go 'we’re too weak and sad and too afraid to do this' and then shut up about it. But the middle ground place they are now is not a winning position politically and it’s not the right place for them to be morally in terms of how history is going to judge them."

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