President Trump might actually want Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings against him, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested on Tuesday.
Pelosi said at a Cornell University event that Trump is "goading us to impeach him" and "every single day" is "taunting, taunting, taunting," CNBC reports. She said Trump knows impeachment would "be very divisive," but he "doesn't really care" and "just wants to solidify his base."
The House speaker has previously suggested that impeachment would play into the president's hands and that Democrats should avoid doing so, instead focusing on defeating him in 2020.
At the same time, Pelosi on Tuesday said that Trump defying congressional subpoenas "could be part of an impeachable offense," Bloomberg reports, adding that "every day he's obstructing justice by saying this one should testify, that one shouldn't testify."
Pelosi spoke on the same morning that the White House instructed former counsel Don McGahn not to comply with a subpoena from Congress; Democrats in the House are considering holding both him and Attorney General William Barr, who missed a deadline to provide Congress with the unredacted Mueller report, in contempt.
Since the release of the redacted Mueller report, more Democrats have taken the step of calling for impeachment, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday saying, "This is not a fight I wanted to take on, but this is the fight we have in front of us now. Begin impeachment proceedings now against this president."