众议院民主党人举行带有吸引人标志的新闻发布会，围绕他们的议程，推进立法，试图向选民传达他们的信息，让他们听到上述弹劾呼声。
众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)周四在美国国会大厦台阶上说:“我们承诺降低医疗保健成本，并已向参议院提交了十项法案，旨在降低处方药价格，保护原有条件，扭转共和党对医疗保健的破坏。”这一时刻意在庆祝共和党获得多数席位的头200天，并宣传他们的一些立法成就。
她还试图强调，持续到9月第一周的长时间休会不会是假期。佩洛西声称:“在8月份，我们的成员将在全国范围内加快鼓声。”。“我们将为人民赢得8月份，让参议院无法处理我们的法案。”
尽管如此，众议院民主党仍然面临着一个困境，就像他们一段时间以来所面临的一样。
核心小组内部弹劾调查的支持者和反对者之间的分歧已经在房间里消耗了太多氧气，扼杀了自2018年中期选举中以创纪录数量的女性和少数党成员重新获得多数席位以来民主党寻求立法成就的公众认可。
负责处理该党政策和信息战略的民主党众议员戴维·西西林承认，他的政党面临挑战，但他表示，他有办法将注意力从启动弹劾程序转移到立法上来:启动弹劾程序。
众议院民主党政策与传播委员会(DPCC)主席奇西林说:“除了实质上是正确的事情之外，我认为它还有一个传播优势。”。“从沟通的角度来看，我们面临的挑战是，我要说，90%的报道是关于调查、监督和弹劾。”
契奇林认为，弹劾调查将把这个问题纳入众议院司法委员会，从而为不情愿的普通民主党人提供庇护。他告诉我，这一举动新闻周刊在最近的一次采访中，这也将为该党创造一个机会，让其将信息从对特朗普所犯下的潜在司法障碍的监督调查转向政策成就，而这些政策成就由于受到大多数公众关注的国会调查而在很大程度上被忽视。
“在特别顾问的积极调查中，当他们被问及很多关于他们在哪里的问题时，他们会说，‘我在等待穆勒报告的结果。’这给了他们一个简单的方法，让他们转到他们真正做的对人们生活很重要的工作上来。我认为启动弹劾调查将为不想谈论此事的成员提供同样的机会。人们很容易说，“司法委员会是司法委员会，他们已经开始调查，我将等待该委员会工作的结束。”"
众议院司法委员会成员代表大卫·奇西林2月8日在DC国会山雷伯恩大厦与代理美国司法部长马修·惠特克举行的监督听证会上与杰罗德·纳德勒主席进行了会谈。奇普索莫德比亚/盖蒂的照片
这一计划仍然存在一个重大问题:包括佩洛西在内的该党最高领导人并不接受这一计划。自5月份白宫指示前白宫法律顾问唐·麦克甘藐视国会传唤证词以来，司法委员会成员奇西林一直支持发起调查。在过去的几个月里，奇西林与佩洛西就弹劾程序进行了多次对话，但议长坚持自己的立场，即他们在传票、文件和证词方面的法律斗争必须进行下去，才能继续进行下去。
“当我们有了继续前进的必要条件时，我们就会继续前进。佩洛西在周五的新闻发布会上说。“每个人都有自由和奢侈来支持自己的立场，并批评我试图以最坚定、积极的方式走下去。”
几分钟后，站在同一讲台后，司法委员会成员，包括杰罗德·纳德勒主席，有效地承认他们已经在弹劾调查中。纳德勒说，他们已经“实际上”进行了调查，而其他几个人，包括众议员杰米·拉斯金，更明确地说，“我们正在进行弹劾调查。”
奇西林没有参加记者招待会，但他参加了写专栏与其他几名委员会成员讨论他们为什么发誓要推进弹劾程序。
支持弹劾调查的众议院议员曾希望穆勒周三在两个国会委员会上的证词会导致支持正式启动调查的浪潮，而民主党领导层和那些反对弹劾调查的人担心穆勒的公开证词可能会打开闸门。然而，截至周六，穆勒听证会只成功地说服了不到六名中立的民主党人倾向于弹劾。
“人们很担心人们不会理解，他们会把弹劾等同于开始弹劾调查，”契西林承认。“这是有风险的，因为如果我们不把区别告诉人们。这是一个合理的担忧。”
7月25日，美国国会大厦外，DC华盛顿，众议员大卫·奇西林和众议院民主党议员一起庆祝第116届国会第200天。奇普索莫德比亚/盖蒂的照片
公众对弹劾程序的普遍理解也是佩洛西最近几个月反复强调的一个问题。
“他们认为你被弹劾了，你就走了，”这位加州民主党人在6月26日的新闻发布会上说。“那完全不是真的。当你被弹劾时，这是一种控诉。”
众议院的成功弹劾仍然需要共和党控制的参议院进行听证，需要三分之二多数票(67票)才能解除现任总统的职务。例如，比尔·克林顿总统在1998年被众议院弹劾，但他的总统任期在1999年参议院的一次审判中幸存下来。
随着众议院八月休会的开始，民主党人将有六周的时间离开华盛顿特区和国家媒体，也许会给他们一个暂时停止弹劾调查热情的机会，转而强调由民主党领导的众议院通过的立法只是为了在参议院继续存在和死亡。离开国会大厦的时间也有可能导致民主党失去弹劾的势头。
然而，Cicilline预测，弹劾调查支持由略多于40%的核心小组——或近100名成员——组成，随着立法者与选民的对话，这种支持只会随着时间的推移而“加强”。支持调查的民主党人曾希望他们能在8月休会前获得更多的成员，因为在2020年大选真正开始之前，他们发起弹劾的时间在政治上已经不多了。
奇西林和其他民主党人表示，他们将利用长时间的休息，在各自选区内战略性地交流他们已经取得的立法进展。佩洛西在周五给民主党众议员的一封信中表示，由西西林管理的DPCC将把8月份的几周时间分成几周，集中举办一些活动，强调他们所谓的“为人民服务”议程的三大支柱。
8月5日:降低医疗保健和处方药成本
8月12日:通过重建美国增加工资
8月19日:清除华盛顿的腐败
佩洛西补充说，该党将在“整个工作期间参加一系列核心小组电话会议，讨论议员们从他们所在地区听到的内容。”
国会进步核心小组联合主席代表马克·波坎星期三对记者说:“我们大多数人都期待着做的事情是努力向记者们讲述我们在过去七个月里所做的事情。”。“不幸的是，我认为谈论弹劾有点偏离了我们实际通过的事情。我们做了很多事情。很明显，米奇·麦康奈尔把[的账单都带到肯塔基州，然后埋在某个人的后院。”
参议院多数党领袖、肯塔基州共和党人麦康奈尔自豪地称自己是下议院派来的民主党政策的“死神”。他拒绝考虑大多数众议院通过的法案，这激怒了民主党人，他们尽一切可能将参议院称为麦康奈尔的“立法墓地”。
众议院议长南希·佩洛西6月13日在DC首都华盛顿举行每周新闻发布会。奇普索莫德比亚/盖蒂的照片
众议院民主党在头七个月以多数票通过了十几项主要立法，包括一些措施，如果获得参议院通过并由特朗普签署，这些措施将寻求解决枪支暴力、提高最低工资、减少气候变化、降低医疗保健和处方药成本、消除性别薪酬差距、加强男女同性恋、双性恋和变性者保护以及保护做梦者。还有范围广泛的为人民法案民主党人说，这将提高投票权，解决竞选财务条例，并打击华盛顿政治中的腐败。
众议院通过了350多项立法，但两院仅批准了55项法案，仅有33项法案签署成为法律。
“很难交流我们在美国人民的优先事项上所做的大量工作，部分原因是总统的行为、监督和调查，”契西林说。“我们将尝试利用[八月休会]以一种真正战略性的方式进行沟通。在这四周时间里，我们在全国各地的国会选区都发生了一些事件和沟通，真正利用这一机会，在众议院民主党占多数的头200天向选民汇报。”
尽管奇西林在描述调查与立法之间的平衡时没有使用已经成为众议院民主党人新的最爱的术语来对记者说(也就是说，“我们可以边走边嚼口香糖。”)，他说该党迄今为止已经取得了良好的平衡，需要继续这样做。
“我的观点是，我们必须同时做两件事，我们必须继续专注于完成人们生活中重要的事情，并确保人们知道我们正在做这件事，”奇西林说。"我们还必须提供认真的监督，并真正对本届政府进行检查."
HOW DO DEMOCRATS SHIFT MESSAGING FROM IMPEACHMENT TO LEGISLATION? INITIATE IMPEACHMENT, DEMOCRAT SAYS
Robert Mueller has finally spoken to Congress, members have left Washington for August recess, and a record number of congressional Democrats now support initiating an impeachment inquiry into the president of the United States.
House Democrats hold press conferences with appealing signs, pivot to their agenda and surge forward with legislation, trying to shout their message for constituents to hear above cries for impeachment.
"We promised to lower health care costs and have sent ten bills to the Senate to reduce prescription drug prices, protect pre-existing conditions and reverse the GOP sabotage of health care," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Thursday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol flanked by her fellow Democrats, a moment meant to celebrate the party's first 200 days in the majority and to tout some of their legislative achievements.
She also sought to stress that the lengthy recess, which stretches through the first week of September, would not be a vacation. "In the month of August, our members will accelerate a drumbeat across the nation," Pelosi claimed. "We will own August for the people and make it too hot to handle for the Senate not to take up our bills."
Still, House Democrats face a dilemma, as they have for some time.
The divide within the caucus between those who are for an impeachment inquiry versus those who oppose one has been consuming too much oxygen in the room, stifling much of the public recognition Democrats have sought for legislative achievements since regaining the majority in the 2018 midterms with a record number of women and minority members.
The Democrat in charge of handling the party's policy and messaging strategy, Representative David Cicilline, concedes his party is facing a challenge, but says he has the solution to shifting attention away from the spectacle of launching impeachment proceedings and refocusing it back to legislation: Launch impeachment proceedings.
"In addition to it substantively being the right thing to do, I think it also has a communications advantage," says Cicilline, the chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC). "The challenge we face from a communications perspective is, I would say, 90 percent of the coverage is about investigations and oversight and impeachment."
An impeachment inquiry would provide shelter for reluctant rank-and-file Democrats by containing the issue within the House Judiciary Committee, Cicilline argues. The move, he told Newsweek in a recent interview, would also create an opportunity for the party to pivot its message away from its oversight investigations into potential obstruction of justice committed by Trump and more toward policy achievements that have gone largely unnoticed due to the congressional probes that have received most of the public's attention.
"In the midst of an active investigation by the special counsel, when they were asked lots of questions about where they are, they'd say, 'I'm waiting for the outcome of the Mueller report.' It gave them an easy way to pivot to the work they were really doing that mattered in people's lives," he explains. "I think opening an impeachment inquiry is going to provide the same opportunity for members who don't want to talk about this. It will be easy for people to say, 'The Judiciary Committee is the committee of jurisdiction, they've opened an inquiry, I'm going to await the conclusion of that committee's work.'"
House Judiciary Committee member Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) (C) talks with Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) during an oversight hearing with Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill February 8 in Washington, DC.PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY
One significant problem remains with this plan: The party's top leaders, including Pelosi, aren't buying it. Cicilline, a Judiciary Committee member himself, has supported initiating an inquiry since May, when the White House directed former White House counsel Don McGahn to defy a congressional subpoena for testimony. Over the past few months, Cicilline has had multiple conversations with Pelosi about impeachment proceedings, but the Speaker has maintained her position that their legal battles over subpoenas, documents and testimonies must play out before they can move forward.
"We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed. Not one day sooner," Pelosi said at a press conference Friday. "Everybody has the liberty and luxury to espouse their own position and to criticize me for trying to go down the path in the most determined, positive way."
Just minutes later while standing behind the same lectern, members of the Judiciary Committee, including Chairman Jerrold Nadler, effectively conceded they were already in the midst of an impeachment inquiry. Nadler said they have already been "in effect" conducting an inquiry, while several others, including Representative Jamie Raskin, said more explicitly, "We're in an impeachment investigation."
Cicilline was not part of that press conference, but he did pen an op-ed with several other committee members about why they're vowing to move forward with impeachment proceedings.
Pro-impeachment inquiry House members had hoped the testimony of Mueller before two congressional committees on Wednesday would result in a large wave of support for officially starting the inquiry, while Democratic leadership and those opposed to an impeachment inquiry fretted Mueller's public testimony could open the flood gates. Yet, as of Saturday, the Mueller hearings had only succeeded in swaying fewer than half a dozen on-the-fence Democrats to lean toward impeachment.
"There's a lot of concern that people will not understand it, and they will equate impeachment with opening an impeachment inquiry," Cicilline admits. "There's some risk, in that if we don't do a good job in telling people the difference. That's a fair concern."
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) speaks while joining fellow House Democrats to mark the 200th day of the 116th Congress on the steps outside the U.S. Capitol July 25 in Washington, DC.PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY
The public's general understanding of the impeachment process is also a concern that Pelosi has echoed time and again in recent months.
"They think you get impeached, you're gone," the California Democrat said at a June 26 press conference. "And that is completely not true. When you get impeached, it's an indictment."
A successful impeachment in the House would still require a hearing in the GOP-controlled Senate, where a two-thirds majority (67 votes) would be needed to remove a sitting president from office. For example, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998, but his presidency survived a 1999 trial in the Senate.
With the August recess having commenced for the House, Democrats will have six weeks away from Washington, D.C., and the national media, perhaps offering them an opportunity to temporarily lay off the impeachment inquiry fervor and instead highlight legislation that the Democratic-led chamber has passed only to go on and die in the Senate. There is also the possibility that the time away from the Capitol could result in Democrats losing impeachment momentum.
However, Cicilline predicts the impeachment inquiry support, which consists of a little more than 40 percent of the caucus—or nearly 100 members—will only "intensify" over break as lawmakers speak with constituents. Pro-inquiry Democrats had hoped they could secure more members before the August hiatus, as time is running out politically for them to initiate impeachment before the 2020 election campaigns begin in earnest.
Cicilline, along with other Democrats, say they'll use the long break to strategically communicate within their districts about the legislative progress they've accomplished. In a letter to her Democratic House colleagues on Friday, Pelosi said the DPCC, which is run by Cicilline, would be dividing up the weeks of August to focus on holding events that highlight the three main pillars of what they call their "for the people" agenda.
• August 5th: lowering health care and prescription drug costs
• August 12th: increasing paychecks by rebuilding America
• August 19th: cleaning up corruption in Washington
Pelosi added that the party would engage in a "series of Caucus conference calls throughout the work period to discuss what Members are hearing from their districts."
"The thing that most of us are looking forward to do is trying to talk back home to reporters about what we've done for the last seven months," Representative Mark Pocan, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said to reporters Wednesday. "Unfortunately, I think talk about impeachment took a bit away from the things we've actually passed. We've done a lot of things. Apparently, Mitch McConnell's taken [the bills] all to Kentucky and buried them in some guy's backyard."
McConnell, the Senate's majority leader and a Kentucky Republican, has taken pride in referring to himself as the "Grim Reaper" for Democratic policies sent up from the lower chamber. His refusal to consider most House-passed bills has infuriated Democrats, who have taken to referring to the Senate as McConnell's "legislative graveyard" every chance they can.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol June 13 in Washington, DC.PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY
House Democrats have passed more than a dozen major pieces of legislation in their first seven months in the majority, including measures that, if passed by the Senate and signed by Trump, would seek to address gun violence, raise the minimum wage, reduce climate change, lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs, eliminate gender pay gaps, strengthen LGBTQ protections and protect DREAMers. There is also the wide-ranging For the People Act that would bolster voting rights, tackle campaign finance regulations and, Democrats say, combat corruption in Washington politics.
The House has passed more than 350 pieces of legislation, but only 55 bills have been approved by both chambers and a mere 33 have been signed into law.
"It has been very difficult to communicate the amount of work that we've gotten done on the priorities of the American people, in part because of the president's conduct and oversight and investigations," Cicilline says. "We're going to try to use [August recess] in a really strategic way to communicate. We have events happening and communications happening all across the country in congressional districts over those four weeks, really using it as an opportunity to report back to the constituents on the first 200 days of Democratic majority in the House."
And while Cicilline didn't use what has become House Democrats' new favorite term to say to reporters when describing the balance of investigating versus legislating (i.e., "We can walk and chew gum at the same time."), he said the party has so far struck a good balance and needs to continue doing so.
"My view of it is that we have to do both things, that we have got to continue to stay laser focused on getting things done that matter in people's lives and making sure people know we're doing it," Cicilline says. "And we also have to provide serious oversight and really provide the check on this administration."
