What Pelosi’s Pivot on Impeachment Really Means
When Speaker Nancy Pelosi solemnly announced that the House of Representatives would open an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, everything changed. Or maybe nothing changed at all.
On the one hand, the most powerful woman in America had just unequivocally thrown her support behind an official effort to remove the president from office, abandoning her long-standing opposition to such a drastic move. On the other, Pelosi had merely offered her endorsement of a process—an investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment—that was already under way in the House.
Pelosi announced no new select committee to handle Trump’s impeachment. She provided no timetable for its consideration. She gave no guarantee that the House would even vote to charge the
