Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats are a hapless and ineffective bunch. Overmatched by the times they have been consistently out-negotiated and outmaneuvered and Pelosi’s lack of political skills may endanger the Dem control of the House – something unthinkable a few months ago.
Pelosi made promises throughout the Covid negotiations and she simply can’t fulfill them. Worse, she is holding out for those promises, and if she gets blamed for what could happen to those on unemployment if she can’t make a deal – mass evictions – she will lose the House.
Today, rather than figure a way out of the mess they created, the House Democrats are moving to hold Mike Pompeo in contempt.
Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said they will begin proceedings in a statement.
“The Secretary’s ongoing defiance of two duly authorized subpoenas on matters directly linked to American foreign policy toward Ukraine has left the Committee no further option but to begin drafting a resolution finding Secretary Pompeo in contempt of Congress,” Engel said in a statement.
“He seems to think the office he holds, the Department he runs, the personnel he oversees, and the taxpayer dollars that pay for all of it are there for his personal and political benefit,” the New York Democrat added.
From Reuters:
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee announced contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records into his “transparently political misuse” of department resources.
Committee Chairman Eliot Engel also cited Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem before the Republican National Convention and said “he has demonstrated alarming disregard for the laws and rules governing his own conduct and for the tools the constitution provides to prevent government corruption.”
From The Hill:
Engel pointed to how Pompeo was willing to work with the GOP-led investigation in the Senate as they seek to, as he claimed, “amplify [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s debunked conspiracy theories” about President Trump’s political foes, while refusing to provide the same information to his panel, which is led by Democrats.
Engel argued that Pompeo is helping both the Senate and Russia’s agenda to sow discord in the 2020 election by spreading unsubstantiated claims about former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, and his son Hunter’s involvement in Ukraine.
