House Democrat leaders won't rule out launching impeachment proceedings

Nadler on impeachment. — (Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter)

To impeach, or to not impeach? That is — always, it seems — the question.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told NBC's Chuck Todd on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press that he is not ruling out beginning impeachment proceedings against President Trump following Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on 2016 Russian election interference and the Trump campaign's conduct surrounding the meddling.

Nadler was anything but surefire on the matter, though. Per The Hill, he said Congress would first have to receive an unredacted version of Mueller's report — for which Democrats have issued a subpoena already — as well as hear testimony from both Mueller and Attorney General William Barr before determining whether to begin proceedings or not. That said, Nadler added that "if proven," some of the material from the Mueller report, particularly possible obstruction of justice, would be impeachable.

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Nadler is not the first prominent Democrat to discuss beginning impeachment proceedings in recent days. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a presidential candidate, did so on Friday, while Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee chair, said during Sunday's This Week that Democrats may undertake impeachment, even with the knowledge that the Senate would be unlikely to vote Trump out of office. Schiff called the Mueller investigation "more significant" than Watergate. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.