Rep. Ro Khanna: Senate ‘unlikely to convict the president’ but it’s important to hold him ‘accountable for what happened’
Rep. Ro Khanna weighed in on the Democrats' push to pursue the impeachment of President Trump Tuesday saying he thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats “realize that the Senate is unlikely to convict the president
Rep. Ro Khanna weighed in on the potential Democrat push to impeach President Trump, saying he thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in his party “realize that the Senate is unlikely to convict the president" but added it is still “important to hold the president accountable for what happened.”
Rep. Khanna, D-Calif., made the statements on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday, the morning after he participated in a conference call where House Democrats huddled with party leadership to discuss the next steps after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report. As some have pushed for impeachment, Pelosi, D-Calif., unequivocally stated her opposition to launching impeachment proceedings against President Trump, calling it “divisive” and “just not worth it."
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“It was a good call. Speaker Pelosi set the tone, she said we need to be deliberate and methodical. There shouldn't be any rush to any judgment,” Khanna said on Tuesday.
“One of the things I think we can all agree about is the Mueller report’s conclusion that there was sweeping and systemic interference in our election by the Russians. I'm working actually with leader McCarthy and others to find some ways of protecting American democracy from future interference. And that’s a place I think many Americans would agree.”
He added: “Every American should be concerned if Russia did it last election whose to say China or Iran wouldn't do it? I represent Silicon Valley. We need to make sure the tech platforms are working with law enforcement so that this never happens again and I think that's a common sense area with where we can all work together.”
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Leaders of the House Democrats backed off the idea of immediately launching impeachment proceedings against President Trump in the urgent conference call Monday evening amid a growing rift among the party's rank-and-file members, presidential contenders and committee chairs on the contentious issue. Well-placed sources said it was a spirited 87-minute call involving more than 170 Democrat members.
Fox News is told by two senior sources on the private conference call that even House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, an anti-Trump firebrand, told fellow Democrats that while she personally favored going forward with impeachment proceedings, she was not pushing for other members to join her.
Pelosi and her leadership team were clear there were no immediate plans to move forward with impeachment, Fox News is also told.
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On Tuesday, when asked if he thinks the House Democrats should pursue impeachment Khanna said, “Not right now” adding, “I think what we need to do is have Bob Mueller testify, we need to have the committees do their work. We just got the report a few days ago or a week ago and the committee should do their work.”
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