2/28/2019

DEMS/IMPEACHMENT/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Michael D. Cohen’s explosive testimony this week about President Trump’s potentially felonious conduct has not moved House Democratic leaders closer to initiating impeachment proceedings against the president, with top lawmakers preferring to pursue multiple intertwined inquiries as they await the results of the special counsel’s investigation. Democrats on Thursday [2-28-19] emphasized their intent to explore and broadcast Mr. Trump’s actions through existing investigations, believing that, lacking startling new evidence, a drawn-out gantlet of inquiries will do more damage to a president seeking re-election than a partisan impeachment that could only roil the country and energize Republicans — a thousand cuts over a swing of the ax…Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who has steadfastly pushed back against calls to try to impeach Mr. Trump, told reporters that impeachment was ‘a divisive issue in our country,’ and that she was more concerned with the president’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border.”

Nicholas Fandos and Carl Hulse, “After Cohen Testimony, Top Democrats Shy From Impeachment,” The New York Times online, February 28, 2019