Blog Post 1.5 "Congress & POTUS"

1. What is Nancy Pelosi's role in Congress?

Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House. The speaker of the House determines the agenda in the House, which is powerful because she determines what issues will and will not be addressed.

2. What is President Trump alleged to have done?

Donald Trump tried to pressure the Ukranian government to work with his lawyer Rudy Guliani to investigate Hunter Biden's business, Burisma.

3. What is Nancy Pelosi's goal, since she does not want to impeach the president?

Nancy Pelosi's goal is to preserve and grow the number of Democrats in the House, and she fears that an impeachment proceeding would alienate purple districts-districts the Democrats won in 2018 that Trump won in 2016. Furthermore, Pelosi wants to pass a law that establishes the indictment procedure for a sitting president.

4. What does Pelosi say has harmed Congress's ability to investigate the Executive Branch?

Congress's ability to investigate the Exexctive branch has been stymied by a lack of cooperation by the Executive Branch. Furthermore, the Executive Branch declares Executive privilage and withholds information from Congress.

5. How did the Director of National Intelligence (who works for the president) violate the law?

Director Maguire refused to tell Congress about the whistleblower's complaint, stepping in to prevent the complaint from reaching the House Intelligence Committee.

6. What is Adam Schiff's role in Congress?

Schiff's role in Congress is serving as the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He is also a representative.

7. Why do "moderate Democrats" want to avoid impeaching the president?

Moderate democrats from swing districts understand that moving with an impeachment inquiry will alienate their purple voters. Most Americans do not support impeachment, and doing impeachment might kill the Democratic majority in the House in 2020.

8. How does the American public feel about the issue?                                                               Only 37% of Americans support impeachment; 50% oppose impeachment. Furthermore, 70% of democrats and 6% of Republicans support impeachment. For the most part, impeachment is unpopular with Americans.