Speaker Nancy Pelosi looks clairvoyant for urging Democrats to drop the impeachment talk — and start obsessing about a 2020 election verdict.
The state of play: Now, the speaker must stare down members, donors and activists hell-bent on administering some Trump punishment, even after Mueller took a pass. "Our primary focus is on getting the underlying documents," a Pelosi aide said. "We think there's a lot there that helps inform these other investigations."
Mueller's hung jury on obstruction — assuming Attorney General William Barr distilled it accurately — could encourage some Democrats to dig in.
- But the flip is that if Mueller couldn't conclusively prove it, a partisan investigation is even less likely to.
- So obstruction could become the new Russia — the left's white whale.
Steve Elmendorf, a former top House Dem aide, told me Pelosi will be able to hold off impeachment fever, in part because the Twitter/cable world is "totally out of step with what people out in the country are really talking about."
- Elmendorf said Pelosi "knows why she won in '18, and how to win again in '20" — by emphasizing kitchen-table issues like health care, not impeachment.
Go deeper: Trump claims vindication, eyes vengeance
