Hoyer: ‘Impeachment not worthwhile’ after seeing Mueller report

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that nothing he saw in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report would make seeking to impeach President Trump a “worthwhile” effort “at this point.”

Hoyer made the remarks to CNN’s Dana Bash following the Justice Department’s release of Mueller’s partially redacted findings in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 

{mosads}“Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point,” Hoyer told CNN. “Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement.”

According to the report, the special counsel did not establish that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. Also, he declined to reach a conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice in the investigation, though Mueller lists 10 “episodes” that his team investigated for possible obstruction. 

In recent months, House Democratic leadership has avoided calls to impeach Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said recently that impeaching the president is “not worth” the political divisiveness it would bring to the country.

“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” Pelosi said in March.

Before the report’s release, Pelosi repeatedly argued that Congress should wait to see Mueller’s findings before discussing impeachment. In a press conference responding to the findings Thursday afternoon, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said impeachment remained “one possibility” but said it was “too early to reach those conclusions.”

NADLER on impeachment: “That’s one possibility… it’s too early to reach those conclusions.” pic.twitter.com/f2GhqrheqM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2019

Rank-and-file House Democrats have had more mixed opinions on the prospect of impeachment. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) made headlines earlier this year when she said the incoming Congress would “impeach the motherf—er,” referring to Trump, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), another of several progressive freshmen members, was cooler on the idea of impeachment, noting the difficulty of getting the votes to convict with a Republican majority in the Senate.

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who has unsuccessfully introduced articles of impeachment against Trump a number of times, has said that his calls for removing Trump from office have nothing to do with the Mueller report, but instead are related to some of the president’s statements that Green has said amount to “bigotry.”