The Latest: ‘Do You Hate the President?’

[0] It started with a whistleblowers complain about President Trump's contact with a foreign leader.

[1] I had a perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine.

[2] Like, I mean, perfect.

[3] Today, I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.

[4] Morning.

[5] Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

[6] Yes.

[7] Are we going to have a good Christmas?

[8] So we'll just see.

[9] Okay.

[10] It's Julie Davis in the Washington Bureau of the New York Times.

[11] So the news today is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did the thing that had long been expected, but that is a huge deal nonetheless.

[12] Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders, and a heart full of love for America.

[13] Today, I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment.

[14] She announced that Democrats will draft articles of impeachment against President Trump.

[15] And we will proceed in a manner worthy of our oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

[16] So help us God.

[17] The way Pelosi went about announcing all of this was full of symbolism and history.

[18] She calls the press to the Speaker's balcony in the Capitol.

[19] There's this backdrop of American flags.

[20] When crafting the Constitution, the founders feared the return of a monarchy.

[21] in America.

[22] She gives this formal address invoking the Constitution in the early days of the country.

[23] And having just fought a war of independence, they specifically feared the prospect of a king president corrupted by foreign influence.

[24] She name checks all these founding fathers.

[25] James Madison, George Mason insisted, said Benjamin Franklin.

[26] But the latest, and what really stood out to me, is what happened a couple hours later, at the very end of Pelosi's weekly press conference.

[27] In our legislation, we have 275 bills that are bipartisan on Mitch McConnell's desk.

[28] After she wraps up, she's walking away from the podium.

[29] Thank you.

[30] Thank you.

[31] And a reporter for a conservative television network, a guy named James Rosen, asks a pointed question.

[32] Do you hate the president?

[33] And Pelosi kind of wheels around.

[34] She stops in her tracks and points her finger at him and says, I don't hate anybody.

[35] I don't hate anybody.

[36] You don't hate anybody.

[37] Not anybody in the world.

[38] You don't accuse me. I did not accuse you.

[39] I asked the question.

[40] Representative Collins yesterday suggested that the Democrats are doing this simply because they don't like the guy.

[41] So Pelosi walks back over to the lectern, leans into the microphones, looks at the cameras, and says, I think it's an important point.

[42] I think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids.

[43] who are afraid of gun violence.

[44] I think he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our dreamers, of which we're very proud.

[45] I think he's in denial about the climate crisis.

[46] However, that's about the election.

[47] This is about the election.

[48] Take it up in the election.

[49] This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president's violation of his oath of office.

[50] And as a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate.

[51] in a sentence that addresses me. I don't hate anyone.

[52] I was raised in a way that is a heart full of love and always prayed for the president.

[53] And I still prayed for the president.

[54] I pray for the president all the time.

[55] So don't mess with me when it comes to words like that.

[56] And the reason this moment stands out for me is it ties together an inescapable dichotomy about this impeachment process.

[57] First, we have this stayed, somber, sober vibe to the whole thing.

[58] In the morning, you've got Nancy Pelosi, very formal, reading from her teleprompter, announcing this historic proceeding in the impeachment and invoking the weight of history.

[59] A few hours later, Pelosi is in this heated back and forth with a reporter over whether she hates President Trump.

[60] Democrats have been investigating this president for years.

[61] They know exactly how explosive the impeachment is politically, how risky it is for them.

[62] And Nancy Pelosi earlier in the press conference was even rattling off polling numbers about the public support for impeachment off the top of her head.

[63] So this is very much top of mind for her as well.

[64] And this moment kind of brought those two competing ideas into relief.

[65] And both things can be true.

[66] She and the Democrats can be doing impeachment for the Constitution, for the good of the Republic, for all of the reasons that they are saying they're doing it, even as they are very, very aware of the politics of all of it.

[67] of this and driven by that in many ways and looking at what this will mean for them in November 2020.

[68] So that's the latest from Washington.

[69] The House Judiciary Committee picks things back up on Monday.