Pelosi Isn't Calling for Trump's Impeachment

Q: Has Nancy Pelosi introduced articles of impeachment for Donald Trump?

A: No. The House Democratic leader has repeatedly opposed calls for impeachment.

FULL ANSWER

Nancy Pelosi, minority leader in the House of Representatives, has maintained her opposition to hastily impeaching President Donald Trump since he took office in 2017.

Less than three weeks into his presidency, Pelosi tamped down calls for impeachment, saying, “When and if he breaks the law, that is when something like that would come up.”

Three months later, when Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey and some Democrats had again suggested the idea of impeachment, she said that “they know I don’t subscribe to that.” She emphasized the need for facts above emotion in pursuing impeachment.

The month after that, she discouraged fellow Democrats from focusing on impeachment, reportedly telling them in a closed-door meeting that Trump would create his own downfall as the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election continued, according to Politico.

In October she told comedian Chelsea Handler, who had a Netflix talk show at the time, that instead of impeachment, “I think I have another ‘i’ word — it’s intervention.”

Then in November she asserted that impeachment would not be a Democratic priority if the party were to retake the House in the midterm elections.

She also voted to table two attempts at impeachment, which effectively stopped them.

So, there’s no truth to a story suggesting that she is doing otherwise.

Facebook users rightly flagged as potentially false a story with the headline: “BREAKING: Pelosi Issues ‘Impeachment’ Announcement, Media Stunned.”

Pelosi has made no announcement about impeachment.

What follows the headline is this: “WARNING: DEMOCRATS MOMENTS AWAY FROM IMPEACHING TRUMP.”

Then the site that published the story — teaparty.org — includes an appeal for readers to participate in a survey about whether or not they oppose an effort to impeach Trump, followed by an invitation to donate to the site.

A phone call for comment to the organization wasn’t returned.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label false stories flagged by readers on the social media network.

Sources

Lillis, Mike. “Pelosi: No grounds for impeaching Trump.” The Hill. 6 Feb 2017.

Easley, Jonathan. “Dem reps: Trump is ‘moving’ toward impeachment.” The Hill. 10 May 2017.

Schwartz, Ian. “Pelosi To Democratic Colleagues: I Don’t Subscribe To Idea Of Impeaching Trump.” RealClear Politics. 15 May 2017.

Caygle, Heather and Bresnahan, John. “Pelosi predicts Trump will ‘self-impeach.’” Politico. 13 Jun 2017.

Kurtz, Judy. “Pelosi: Trump needs an ‘intervention.’” The Hill. 19 Oct 2017.

Lima, Chistiano. “Pelosi: Impeaching Trump ‘not someplace that I think we should go.’” Politico. 5 Nov 2017.

“BREAKING: Pelosi Issues ‘Impeachment’ Announcement, Media Stunned.” TeaParty.org. 18 Mar 2018.

U.S. House. H.Res. 646, roll call vote. 6 Dec 2017.

U.S. House. H.Res. 705, roll call vote. 19 Jan 2018.