Democrats in House Approach Critical Point for Impeachment as Pelosi Takes on Crucial Week

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The reason: the content of the complaint is not yet clear. And we still do not know how the Trump administration will react.

Many Democratic sources told CNN that if the White House completely blocked the information of the Democrats, it would facilitate the calculation to advance the impeachment process. But if the White House provides a transcript or seeks to blur the trail in its response, it may make it harder for Democrats to unify behind the impeachment even after President Donald Trump's confession 39, discussing Vice President Joe Biden and his son by phone. call with the Ukrainian chef.

That's why this week is crucial for House Democrats to decide the way forward. They are waiting to see how Acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire will respond at Thursday's hearing to the big issues before the House Intelligence Committee – and if the administration will provide more details of Trump's conversations with Ukrainian leaders or the content of the whistleblower. complaint.

Senate Republicans avoid criticizing Trump about the whistleblower's treatment: "It's a lot of hysteria because of very little."
In addition, Pelosi and the House Democrat leaders are waiting to see how members react – particularly those of the tough races that represent the GOP-prone districts – to see if it's time to go out there. 39; before. Pelosi, a wise vote counter, has no desire to go ahead with a dismissal if he misses 218 votes in the House, said Democratic sources, and before the controversy over Ukraine, it is almost certain that Democrats in the House would have been well away from this majority. threshold. This could change depending on how the last controversy was resolved.

The Democratic caucus of the House will meet on Tuesday afternoon, according to three Democratic sources. A management assistant told CNN that the subject would probably be about the next steps of the investigations.

"The dominant focus of Wednesday's caucus is trade, a second caucus has been added to give members enough time to discuss the issue of whistleblowers and several other urgent issues on Tuesday afternoon." , said Monday a Democratic leadership aide in a evening statement.

"When will the Democrats become tough?"

The struggle for impeachment remains a matter of contention within the party as Democratic leaders continue their investigations into the Trump administration – including the new threat of subpoenas from a trio of presidents of the House – as a result many developments on the issue in recent days.

Democrats, including Trump's first-year students and moderates who have resisted calls for dismissal, tell their colleagues that they are ready to announce support for the impeachment process if the controversy does not arise. Steadily growing, especially since it is proven that Trump sought to suspend his military aid to Ukraine in return for an investigation into the Bidens, according to Democratic sources involved in the talks.

Schumer requests hearings and subpoena following whistleblower complaint

This could change the calculation for Pelosi, who has partially resisted the indictment because she has been striving to protect vulnerable Democrats in GOP-prone districts, which could face negative reactions voters following the dismissal. But if the deputies commit to the impeachment procedure, Pelosi can only change its position, according to the speaker's close democrats.

"I think we are on the cusp of our base and our caucus," Gerry Connolly, a Democrat on the house and foreign affairs watchdog, told CNN on Monday.

"This weekend, all I hear at home, is when are the Democrats going to get tough?" Connolly said. "We look weak."

So far, 137 Democrats in the House have publicly declared their support for an impeachment investigation against Trump, according to a CNN count – more than half of the caucus and dozens of people joining it in the last two month. But this number is still far below the majority of the House and Pelosi has long warned of the political consequences of such a move against the presidents.

Addressing Poppy Harlow of CNN on Monday in "Newsroom", Texas Democrat Representative Vicente Gonzalez said that if Trump ceased to provide military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the reopening of An investigation into Biden's son, he would support an investigation of impeachment.

"I do not think we have a choice under the Constitution, we have to go ahead with the impeachment process, and I do not think we will have much choice," said Gonzalez.

New threat of assignment

New comments from Democratic lawmakers arrive Monday as three House committees have threatened to summon the state department to "document" that the state department has withheld in response to a letter that the presidents sent two weeks ago regarding the efforts of the president and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to solicit the help of a foreign power in order to interfere in the 2020 presidential election ". Three presidents – Adam Schiff, president of the intelligence services of the Chamber of Deputies, Eliot Engel, president of Foreign Affairs, and Elijah Cummings, chairman of the Supervisory Board – wrote a letter to state secretary Mike Pompeo.

"Seeking to engage a foreign actor to interfere in the US elections undermines our sovereignty, our democracy and the Constitution, which the president has vowed to preserve, protect and defend," the three presidents jointly wrote. "Yet the president and his personal attorney now seem to be openly engaging in this type of abuse of power involving the Ukrainian government before the 2020 elections."

Trump acknowledged Sunday that he had discussed the former vice president during a phone interview in July with the Ukrainian president. CNN has previously reported that Trump had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his appeal to investigate Biden's son Hunter, according to a person close to the situation. This appeal was also part of the whistleblowing complaint filed with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, which has not been communicated to lawmakers despite calls from Democrats. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden.

This story has been updated with additional developments on Monday.

Lauren Fox, Haley Byrd and Kaanita Iyer from CNN contributed to this report.

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