This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/politics/democrats-trump.html
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Impeach Trump or Work With Him? Democrats Are Pushing Forward on Both | Impeach Trump or Work With Him? Democrats Are Pushing Forward on Both |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| WASHINGTON — On the day that House Democrats formally accused President Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, something unusual happened in the capital: Divided government actually started to work. | WASHINGTON — On the day that House Democrats formally accused President Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, something unusual happened in the capital: Divided government actually started to work. |
| Within minutes of announcing on Tuesday that Democrats would charge Mr. Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was behind closed doors with her rank and file, informing them that she was ready to deliver the president his biggest economic priority: passage of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. | Within minutes of announcing on Tuesday that Democrats would charge Mr. Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was behind closed doors with her rank and file, informing them that she was ready to deliver the president his biggest economic priority: passage of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. |
| That was not all. Democrats are also on the brink of approving a bipartisan defense bill, the largest in the nation’s history, after weeks of negotiations with Republicans, and intend to pass legislation this week on another issue that Mr. Trump has made a top priority: lowering the cost of prescription drugs. | That was not all. Democrats are also on the brink of approving a bipartisan defense bill, the largest in the nation’s history, after weeks of negotiations with Republicans, and intend to pass legislation this week on another issue that Mr. Trump has made a top priority: lowering the cost of prescription drugs. |
| The sudden outbreak of bipartisan cooperation, almost certain to be fleeting, was hardly an accident. Ms. Pelosi has long insisted that Democrats could “walk and chew gum at the same time” — that they were willing to work with the president on legislation even as they tried to oust him from office. | The sudden outbreak of bipartisan cooperation, almost certain to be fleeting, was hardly an accident. Ms. Pelosi has long insisted that Democrats could “walk and chew gum at the same time” — that they were willing to work with the president on legislation even as they tried to oust him from office. |
| But she needed to prove it. Ms. Pelosi is well aware that if she is going to keep her majority, and her job as speaker, she cannot send her members — especially nervous moderates in Trump-friendly districts — home for the holidays empty-handed after they had voted to impeach the president. | But she needed to prove it. Ms. Pelosi is well aware that if she is going to keep her majority, and her job as speaker, she cannot send her members — especially nervous moderates in Trump-friendly districts — home for the holidays empty-handed after they had voted to impeach the president. |
| So Tuesday turned into a split-screen morning in the Capitol, as Democrats and the press grappled with what amounted to a case of whiplash. Ms. Pelosi appeared before cameras at 9 a.m. with her top lieutenants to announce the impeachment articles, and again at 10 a.m. to announce a deal on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Some Democrats were blunt about the strategy. | So Tuesday turned into a split-screen morning in the Capitol, as Democrats and the press grappled with what amounted to a case of whiplash. Ms. Pelosi appeared before cameras at 9 a.m. with her top lieutenants to announce the impeachment articles, and again at 10 a.m. to announce a deal on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Some Democrats were blunt about the strategy. |
| “U.S.M.C.A. being brought up at this moment is a very strange diversion,” Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, who has expressed concerns about the trade pact, told reporters. “It’s a way of trying to get you to talk about more than one issue in the news.” | “U.S.M.C.A. being brought up at this moment is a very strange diversion,” Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, who has expressed concerns about the trade pact, told reporters. “It’s a way of trying to get you to talk about more than one issue in the news.” |
| Ms. Pelosi insisted it was not politics, but the calendar itself, that dictated the one-two punch of calling for the president’s removal in one moment and handing him one of his biggest priorities in the next. | Ms. Pelosi insisted it was not politics, but the calendar itself, that dictated the one-two punch of calling for the president’s removal in one moment and handing him one of his biggest priorities in the next. |
| “It’s just as we get to the end of a session, there have to be some decisions made,” she said during the news conference on trade, adding, “We didn’t know what day it would be.” | “It’s just as we get to the end of a session, there have to be some decisions made,” she said during the news conference on trade, adding, “We didn’t know what day it would be.” |
| But the optics were hard to miss. Wearing an American flag pin with the words “One Country, One Destiny” on her lapel, Ms. Pelosi turned the trade news conference into a show of Democratic strength. She surrounded herself with more than two dozen of her members, including relieved-looking freshmen who represent districts won by Mr. Trump and have been pining for broadly popular accomplishments to show to voters ahead of their re-election races. | But the optics were hard to miss. Wearing an American flag pin with the words “One Country, One Destiny” on her lapel, Ms. Pelosi turned the trade news conference into a show of Democratic strength. She surrounded herself with more than two dozen of her members, including relieved-looking freshmen who represent districts won by Mr. Trump and have been pining for broadly popular accomplishments to show to voters ahead of their re-election races. |
| The impeachment articles, narrowly focused on Mr. Trump’s effort to enlist Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, also reflected Ms. Pelosi’s worries about protecting those moderates facing political risk. Democrats opted not to charge Mr. Trump with obstruction of justice based on his attempts to thwart Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. | The impeachment articles, narrowly focused on Mr. Trump’s effort to enlist Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, also reflected Ms. Pelosi’s worries about protecting those moderates facing political risk. Democrats opted not to charge Mr. Trump with obstruction of justice based on his attempts to thwart Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. |
| Congressional Democrats “are getting more done in two weeks than the U.S. Senate has done in the last year,” said one vulnerable freshman, Representative Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, adding, “The heart of the Democratic Party right now is the Democratic Congress and the House of Representatives.” | |
| With time running out before the end of the legislative year, Democrats will be in a rush to get everything done. There is likely to be a vote on the defense bill in the House on Wednesday, with the final passage expected next week in the Senate so that the bill can be sent to Mr. Trump. Next week in the House, there will be back-to-back votes on the trade bill and impeachment. | With time running out before the end of the legislative year, Democrats will be in a rush to get everything done. There is likely to be a vote on the defense bill in the House on Wednesday, with the final passage expected next week in the Senate so that the bill can be sent to Mr. Trump. Next week in the House, there will be back-to-back votes on the trade bill and impeachment. |
| That creates the specter of one, or perhaps two, presidential bill-signing ceremonies at the White House on legislation that Democrats will have delivered to Mr. Trump at the precise moment that they have impeached him. While it is unclear whether Mr. Trump will need to sign the trade pact, the president will certainly sign the defense bill into law — perhaps, if tradition holds, with Ms. Pelosi at his side. | That creates the specter of one, or perhaps two, presidential bill-signing ceremonies at the White House on legislation that Democrats will have delivered to Mr. Trump at the precise moment that they have impeached him. While it is unclear whether Mr. Trump will need to sign the trade pact, the president will certainly sign the defense bill into law — perhaps, if tradition holds, with Ms. Pelosi at his side. |
| Democrats are already highlighting that as a win — the first time that “paid family medical leave for millions of federal workers, including military workers, will be the law of the land,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in an interview. | Democrats are already highlighting that as a win — the first time that “paid family medical leave for millions of federal workers, including military workers, will be the law of the land,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in an interview. |
| There was so much news breaking on Tuesday that Mr. Jeffries postponed his usual Tuesday morning news conference until Wednesday; he plans to use it to promote the prescription drug bill. | There was so much news breaking on Tuesday that Mr. Jeffries postponed his usual Tuesday morning news conference until Wednesday; he plans to use it to promote the prescription drug bill. |
| When Ms. Pelosi became speaker in January, Democrats sought to pursue a triangulation strategy of circumventing the Republican-led Senate to work directly with the White House on issues like prescription drugs and infrastructure. Democrats thought they might replicate what happened in 2018, before they took the majority, when they worked with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, on an overhaul of criminal justice laws. | When Ms. Pelosi became speaker in January, Democrats sought to pursue a triangulation strategy of circumventing the Republican-led Senate to work directly with the White House on issues like prescription drugs and infrastructure. Democrats thought they might replicate what happened in 2018, before they took the majority, when they worked with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, on an overhaul of criminal justice laws. |
| That strategy has yet to work, and Republicans on Tuesday accused Democrats of pushing a partisan prescription drug bill that has little chance of being signed by Mr. Trump. But nothing clarifies the congressional mind as much as the end of the year, and Democrats, who ran for office on kitchen-table economic issues like jobs and the high cost of prescription drugs, are clearly in a hurry to make good on that promise. | That strategy has yet to work, and Republicans on Tuesday accused Democrats of pushing a partisan prescription drug bill that has little chance of being signed by Mr. Trump. But nothing clarifies the congressional mind as much as the end of the year, and Democrats, who ran for office on kitchen-table economic issues like jobs and the high cost of prescription drugs, are clearly in a hurry to make good on that promise. |
| And as to the case of whiplash she was inflicting on the Capitol, Ms. Pelosi had a wry answer: “The day is young.” | And as to the case of whiplash she was inflicting on the Capitol, Ms. Pelosi had a wry answer: “The day is young.” |