A week ago, another impeachment would have seemed out of the realm of possibility, with the Democratic Party just days away from controlling all three levers of power in Washington, DC, and finally saying goodbye to Trump.
But later In the several terrible hours on Wednesday, Trump’s own supporters have made Capitol one of the least safe places in Washington, DC, and Pelosi and all his Democratic Caucus can’t forget that.
“I think Nancy looks at it, too, and says, how do you – when the president put his people at risk of danger or death – don’t you respond to that as strongly as possible?” Deputy Don Beyer (D-Va.) Said in an interview.
The emotional tribute will have a lasting effect on Pelosi and his caucus. About two dozen Democrats were locked inside the chamber on Wednesday, some frantically calling their families in case they needed to say goodbye, as members of an armed crowd eventually forced entry. Many other lawmakers barricaded themselves inside their offices, where they worked with officials to push tables and sofas in front of the doors.
“We are a family. Those were the words used to summon the caucus over and over again,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Who was among the members in the chamber. She remembered when Pelosi and other Democrats met by phone for the first time since the attack on an emotional caucus call. “She talked about her team, how she was so concerned about her team and other people’s team.”
Pelosi was one of several Democrats on that 3.5-hour conference call on Friday to encourage members and their staff to seek counseling for the trauma they experienced that day. Support staff must also have access to the same mental health services, said Pelosi, noting how they are also an integral part of the Capitol core.
“Some of the maintenance people call me ‘mommy,'” Pelosi said on the call, according to several Democrats.
Pelosi repeatedly asked lawmakers and officials to seek mental health support after going through the horrific attack on the Capitol, including another long connection to his caucus on Monday.
For Pelosi and many others, the images of Wednesday’s violence are haunting – demonstrators in tactical gear breaking into the Capitol, sacking offices, including hers, before attacking the police, trying to smash one on a door and dragging another from the building and beating him with a flagpole. Hours earlier, Trump instructed his supporters to march to the Capitol, vowing that the election was rigged and that he would never give in.
As she leads her caucus through the emotional wreckage of the attack, Pelosi too, once again, become the main voice in impeaching a president who was also one of his greatest antagonists for four years. Unlike the long ramp to support impeachment in 2019, this time Pelosi embraced change in a matter of hours.
“One of the things people don’t appreciate about her is that she has a really sincere and deep reverence for our Capitol, for democracy and for the presidency,” said Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.), a close ally of the speaker.
The rest of Pelosi’s caucus quickly came to the same conclusion as her, with very few exceptions. Democrats announced on Monday that they will vote on Wednesday for Trump’s impeachment after securing enough votes to do so, unless Vice President Mike Pence takes unilateral action before that to declare the president unfit for office. .
It is a remarkable demonstration of caucus unity for Pelosi, who struggled to become a spokesman two years ago, after a group of Democratic opponents tried to end his long term in leadership. And many in their caucus already foresaw a tense atmosphere within the caucus for the next two years, which they saw as inevitable when a party in a big tent has such a small majority.
Instead, almost all House Democrats – including freshmen who took office a few days ago – quickly lined up in favor of impeachment.
Even some of the most pro-impeachment Democrats in the caucus were shocked by the speed of their caucus and the support of their leadership.
Deputy Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) – who was removed from the chamber as soon as the protesters invaded the Capitol on Wednesday – started talking about the impeachment almost immediately after it reached a safe place. She was in the same room as Pelosi, the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, the House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and a handful of others.
While they sat together for hours, Omar approached the majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, to tell him that she would write an impeachment article for Trump’s role in inciting the disturbances. He encouraged her to do what she needed, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
On the other side of the Capitol complex, a group of members of the Chamber’s Judiciary – Reps. David Cicilline from Rhode Island and Ted Lieu from California – were also barricaded inside an office together when they started to come up with the idea of writing more impeachment articles.
When those Democrats quickly started circulating their draft, Pelosi was also on the phone without stopping. Since the attack, she has spoken to almost every member of her caucus, responding to text messages and calls late into the night – not unlike the Democrats’ first attempt at impeachment in 2019.
Twenty-four hours after the attack on the Capitol began, Pelosi took the podium to make a decisive warning – Trump was a seditious threat to the country and if Pence did not take immediate steps to remove him, the Democrats would do so.
Speaking of an almost empty building, except for the team working to repair the damage, Pelosi described Trump’s role in the “jubilant desecration of the United States Capitol” and in targeting members of Congress as “horrors that will stain history forever.” of our nation “.
Two years ago, Pelosi spent months carefully managing every step his caucus took towards Trump’s impeachment. She listened carefully to the moderate freshmen who helped Democrats win back the House and only promised to move on when a sizable group of them – all with national security experience – announced their decision to vote yes.
Democrats across the caucus, including those focused on national security, say the impeachment decision was simpler after what they lived on Wednesday.
“I really believe that people have been blocked in their offices making decisions like this,” said MP Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) In an interview about her decision to support impeachment. “There is nothing more enlightening than when your life is in danger.”