Monday night's bombshell reports that Donald Trump refused to release congressionally approved aid to Ukraine has tipped the balance for House Democrats, with a raft of freshmen and swing-district members now calling for impeachment proceedings. And finally, it seems, they're bringing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with them.
The Washington Post reports that Pelosi has been "quietly sounding out top allies and lawmakers" about moving forward with a formal inquiry, spurred on by the seven moderate Democrats, in some of the toughest seats in the caucus, climbing on board. On a flight from New York to Washington Monday evening, Pelosi read the op-ed that seven moderate freshman Democrats had written for the Post. She told CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who was by chance on the same flight, that she "had advance notice the lawmakers were planning to join forces." She said she was not going to "prejudge" the outcome of the regular Tuesday full-caucus meeting, but said, "It will be a big week."
As of Monday night, there were 146 Democrats who have called for impeachment, a solid majority of the caucus. As of Tuesday morning, there are 158, including the entire Michigan Democratic delegation (plus newly independent Rep. Justin Amash). The seven who wrote the op-ed—Reps. Gil Cisneros of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia—were soon joined by Reps. Angie Craig and Dean Phillips of Minnesota. Then Reps. Vincente Gonzalez of Texas and John Larson of Connecticut jumped in. Tuesday morning, Reps. Antonio Delgado of New York and Colin Allred of Texas also flipped, along with Michigan's Haley Stevens.
Possibly the most important shift, though, comes from Pelosi’s close friend and ally Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut. She had been sticking with Pelosi, making the same arguments about the potential divisiveness of impeachment. Monday night, she issued a statement calling Trump's actions regarding Ukraine a "reckless abuse of power" and a "turning point." She wrote, "Congress must meet this pivotal moment in our nation’s history with decisive action."
The House meets during lunch at 4:00 PM ET Tuesday, after which we'll know if all of this has finally pushed Pelosi into making it official.