Pelosi Defends Impeachment: Trump’s Actions Make Nixon’s Crimes “Look Almost Small”

During the conference, Pelosi also repeated Adam Schiff's claim that Democrats could impeach Trump for "bribery" - which seems to be the thing Democrats have shifted to focusing on in their impeachment sham, since "quid pro quo" fell through.

But, House Minority Leader Rep. McCarthy had a different story, driving home the real truth that the first impeachment hearing revealed on Twitter:

No matter what kind of crazy nonsense Pelosi, Schiff, and the Democrats spout, the facts stand!

Speaking of which, here's the full video of what Pelosi said on Capitol Hill today from Fox News on Youtube:

Fox News also said:

President Trump's actions make former President Richard Nixon's Watergate crimes look "small" by comparison, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a Thursday press conference on the impeachment inquiry.

"I have said this is something we do with a heavy heart. This is very prayerful," Pelosi told reporters, acknowledging how divided the country is along partisan lines.

"Because impeaching is a divisive thing in our country. It's hard," she said, arguing that public opinion turned rapidly against Nixon when the country started to see the evidence in public.

"It wasn't there before he left, even two weeks before he left it wasn't there until the other shoe fell and he walked out the door. What President Trump has done on the record, in terms of acting to advantage, asking a foreign power to help him in his own election, and of the obstruction of information about that, the cover-up makes what Nixon did look almost small," she continued.

House Republicans will have a chance to be heard on the matter and will be able to suggest witnesses as the process progresses, Pelosi added.

CNNalso said:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said President Trump has "admitted" to bribery, and compared his actions to that of former President Richard Nixon.

Nixon faced impeachment amid the Watergate scandal,but resigned before the House could vote.

"By the way, what President Trump has done on the record in terms of acting to advantage his — a foreign power to help him in his own election, and of the obstruction of information about that — the cover-up — makes what Nixon did look almost small, almost small," Pelosi said.

The Hill added:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday accused President Trump of "bribery" in his dealings with Ukrainian leaders, linking the president's actions to the Constitution's impeachment clause even while emphasizing that Democrats remain undecided on whether they'll draft impeachment articles.

"That is in the Constitution, attached to the impeachment proceedings," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.

She then explained the basis for the charge, which stems from a whistleblower's complaint that has since been supported by numerous government officials, that Trump leveraged U.S. military aid to Kyiv to secure political favors from Ukrainian leaders.

"The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections," she said. "That's bribery."

Pelosi declined to say if the bribery charge would become an article of impeachment, insisting Democrats — even as they move ahead with their investigation — have not concluded Trump committed impeachable offenses.

"We haven't even made a decision to impeach," she said. "That's what the inquiry is about. And when the committees decide that, then they will decide what the articles are."

"But I am saying, that what the president has admitted to, and says it's 'perfect,' I said it's perfectly wrong," she added. "It's bribery."

Pelosi's comments arrived as some Democrats are urging their colleagues to abandon the Latin phrase that's dominated their impeachment inquiry up to now — "quid pro quo" — in favor of language like "bribery" and "extortion" that carries more direct connotations of explicit criminality.