WASHINGTON _ Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is trying to bait Democrats into starting impeachment proceedings against him because he knows it's divisive.
"Trump is goading us to impeach him. That is what he is doing every single day _ taunting, taunting, taunting," the California Democrat said during an event at Cornell University.
Democrats aren't going to fall into that trap, Pelosi suggested.
"We can't impeach him for political reasons, and we can't not impeach him for political reasons. We have to see where the facts take us," she said.
Pelosi said Congress' impeachment power is a justification for Democrats to be allowed access to the unredacted Mueller report and its underlying investigatory materials.
She noted that Mueller decided not to definitively declare that Trump obstructed justice, in part, because of the Justice Department's position that you can't indict a sitting president. In the Mueller report, it says that Congress has other options it can pursue besides indictment.
"We need this information in case we want to exercise other options," Pelosi said.
Yet, the speaker reiterated that she's not ready to start impeachment proceedings at this time.
"That might take us to a place, but we have to have more _ I believe we have to have more information," she said.
Regardless of whether Democrats pursue impeachment, they must win the 2020 presidential election, Pelosi said.
"We cannot accept a second term for Donald Trump if we are going to be faithful to our democracy," she said, noting the way to ensure that outcome is taking the fight to the public.
