Dems seek to rein in calls for impeachment

Democratic leaders are racing to keep the impeachment genie in its bottle.

The release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s mammoth report on Russia’s 2016 election meddling revealed a trove of details related to President Trump’s handling of the investigation, lending a new boost to the small but vocal group of Democrats pushing to oust the president — and creating new challenges for party leaders advocating a more deliberative approach.

In a conference call with House Democrats on Monday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other party leaders sought to rein in the impeachment camp, warning that a rush toward ousting the president before pinpointing criminal wrongdoing — and securing some Republican support — could harm the party at the polls next year.

“We need to hear from [Attorney General William] Barr and Mueller. And we need to see the unreacted report and the documents [that] go with it,” said House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), according to a source on the call. “We cannot allow this president to continue going down this course.”

But Democratic lawmakers on the call questioned that approach, arguing there’s plenty of evidence already to launch the impeachment process.

“I think we have great evidence that the president has blatantly violated so many laws. It’s just ridiculous,” Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a House Judiciary Committee member who hasn’t previously been vocal about impeachment, said during the call.

“I think we have enough” to move forward with impeachment, Demings added, according to a source on the call