House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a CNN Town Hall that she knew then-President George W. Bush was lying about weapons of mass destruction to start a war in Iraq, but she did not see this as “grounds for impeachment.”
The number of casualties in the Iraq War remains disputed, however a recent estimate, using the best information available, shows a “catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million deaths“ since the 2003 invasion, including US soldiers.
Pelosi says she “did not want to go down that path [of impeaching then-President Bush] because of what it would mean for the American people.” However, in 2019, with President Trump in the White House, she says “Our democracy is what is at stake, the president leaves us no choice but to act.“
Pelosi’s view is not shared by the majority of Americans, who view the impeachment of President Trump skeptically and believe Democrats are pursuing impeachment as part of a partisan political agenda against the president.
On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said he believed President Donald Trump was acting on “sincere” concerns of corruption during his dealings with Ukraine.
Gaetz said, “I think the president was acting on a sincere, longly held view and skepticism of foreign aid. I think he was acting on concern about Ukraine being the third most corrupt country in the world. And I think he was also reflecting specific concern about this Biden connection to Burisma.”
House Democrats have been unable to convince the wider public that President Trump was acting dishonestly in Ukraine. However, Nancy Pelosi announced Friday the House will proceed with the impeachment of President Trump.
According to her twisted logic, George W. Bush’s war crimes and staggering death toll were not impeachable offenses, however President Trump’s actions in rooting out corruption in Ukraine are grounds for impeachment.
“When I became Speaker the first time there was overwhelming call for me to impeach President Bush on the strength of the war in Iraq which I vehemently opposed,” Pelosi said.
“I knew there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq,” Pelosi said, before continuing, “I knew it was a misrepresentation to the public. In my view, not a ground for impeachment.
“They won the election, they made a representation, and to this day, people think this was the right thing to do.”
When Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House in 2014 she was also asked why she did not move forward on the requests of her members to impeach then-President George W. Bush.
At the time Pelosi accused Bush of being guilty of impeachable offenses, saying he “sent us into a war based on a false representation of the threat of weapons of mass destruction.”
But she added after the “shameful, irresponsible and wrong” attempted impeachment of President Bill Clinton she “did not want to go down that path because of what it would mean for the American people.”