There's this video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that you can find if you search around enough.

Reporters are chasing her through the halls of the Capitol.

Speaker Pelosi is mostly ignoring them.

And then she gets this question that it seems like she can't help but answer.

She turns on her heels and tells the camera exactly how she feels about the idea of impeachment.

I just don't believe in it. They wanted me to impeach President Bush for the Iraq war.

I didn't believe in it then. I don't believe in it now. It divides the country unless there's some conclusive evidence that takes us to that place.

Thank you.

Then she flashes a smile, steps into an elevator, and she's gone.

Over the last few months, many congressional Democrats,

when they've been asked about impeaching Donald Trump, they've adopted this mantra,

wait for the Mueller report.

Not Nancy Pelosi.

She's been super clear.

She said impeaching Trump wouldn't be worth it.

She said it would be a distraction.

There's this idea that impeachment is only worthwhile if you can convict and remove the president,

and that if you cannot do that, that impeachment becomes a political burden.

It could hurt the party in the 2020 elections and may even energize Republicans headed into them.

This is Jamel Bowie from the New York Times.

And this just generally strikes me as putting the cart well before the horse here or the horse before the cart, however the aphorism goes.

I called up Jamel because now that the Mueller report is out there, now that it's decision time for Democrats, I wanted to hear someone make the case for why impeachment makes political

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