Nancy Pelosi tells Jimmy Kimmel that Democrats will hold Trump accountable by 2020

When "Robert Mueller finally spoke" on Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday's Kimmel Live, he said if his team "had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so." Well, "he didn't say so," Kimmel said. "And then he indicated that now it's Congress' job to take it from here. Are you taking it from there?" Pelosi was a little cryptic: "Well, we've been on that path for a while, and when we do get to where we're going, we're going to be ready."

Pelosi mentioned that "path" a lot, and when Kimmel finally brought up impeachment, she said "we're on a path to gain information — the public deserves to know the truth." But she seemed resigned to impeachment, echoing America's founders that "the times have found us" and saying Trump's "defiance of the Constitution" must be "clear to the American people" and, hopefully, Senate Republicans when "we go down that path," or impeachment "could divide the country" and even let Trump off the hook.

Pelosi said she thinks Trump wants to be impeached because he knows the "completely-in-the-pocket-of-Donald-Trump Republican" Senate will acquit him and believes "if the Senate acquits you," you can't be charged after leaving office. "So when we go through with our case, it has to be iron-clad," she said. "Will we be ready before the year 2020?" Kimmel asked. "Yeah, we will," she said.

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Pelosi said she has read the Mueller report, and "immodestly," she probably has "a better idea as to what the president has to be held accountable for than anyone" — except Trump. "He knows what his violations have been," she said. Kimmel asked Pelosi how she deals with Trump's serial lies. "Overwhelmingly, the country is on to him," she argued. "Myself, I'm done with him, in terms of talking about him. What we want to talk about is, let's build the infrastructure of America and not have him stomp out of the room." Kimmel suggested the next time she negotiates with Trump, she'll bring chicken nuggets. "It's not going to hurt." Peter Weber