MSNBC prime time host Rachel Maddow claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would “rather stick a fork in her eye” than impeach President Donald Trump, during her opening monologue Wednesday night.
Maddow began her show by reading a quote from Robert Mueller’s press conference from earlier in the day, in which he said, “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision.” (RELATED: Maddow Hits New Ratings Low)
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“The consequence of hearing from him today for the first time is, I think what is now the widely-held expectation that the Democratic-controlled Congress will have no choice but to open an impeachment inquiry into President Trump,” Maddow said. “Not because they want to. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been blunt, and consistent, and insistent in making clear that she would frankly rather stick a fork in her eye.” (RELATED: Mueller Says His Report Is His ‘Testimony’)
She continued:
But now we know that what Congress didn’t fully appreciate when they all initially cheered the appointment of Robert Mueller, when they praised him personally, when they praised the decision of the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to look into this matter. What I think Congress didn’t fully grasp at the time was that the regulations under which Mueller was appointed meant that if this investigation turned up serious evidence of serious misconduct — if it turned up evidence of potentially criminal behavior by the president — the only and inevitable outcome of that determination by the special counsel would be that Congress themselves would have to do something about it.
As Maddow referenced, Pelosi refused to commit to pursuing impeachment during a press conference Wednesday, following Mueller’s statements. Despite that, 41 House Democrats have called for Trump’s removal from office, according to The Hill. One Republican, Justin Amash from Michigan, joined them.