WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seeking to head off a growing revolt by House Democrats calling for President Trump’s impeachment, decided on Wednesday that a rhetorical shot at the president’s conduct in office could cool the growing momentum in her caucus to formally begin impeachment proceedings. Ms. Pelosi emerged from a hastily called but carefully choreographed meeting of the House Democratic Caucus in the basement of the Capitol to accuse the president of engaging in “a cover-up,” a volley that Mr. Trump felt compelled to answer from the Rose Garden shortly afterward. He accused Democratic leaders of sandbagging him ahead of a White House meeting that was supposed to advance bipartisan legislation on infrastructure. Ms. Pelosi has been unwilling, thus far, to match Mr. Trump’s scorched-earth tactics in the fight over subpoenas issued in the wake of the report last month by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Instead, she has charted a middle course that emphasizes exhausting all legal and legislative options before considering impeachment: blasting the president’s actions in public without allowing his provocations to goad her into taking actions that will aid his re-election campaign in 2020.

Source: New York Times May 22, 2019 16:10 UTC