'The ball is in his court': Nancy Pelosi says she can work with President Trump on Democratic agenda despite impeachment push
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says it's possible for her and her Democratic colleagues to work with President Donald Trump on a long list of political agenda items, despite the House Democrats' latest impeachment efforts.
At a Capitol Hill news conference alongside House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday, Pelosi was asked how she plans to work with the president on Democratic agenda items like prescription drug costs, trade, and gun control while conducting impeachment efforts against the man.
The speaker, who spent the first part of the conference discussing Democrats' policy goals, responded that political agenda items and House impeachment efforts "have nothing to do with each other."
"We have a responsibility to uphold our oath of office, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States," Pelosi elaborated. "We also have a responsibility to get the job done for the American people."
As an example, Pelosi pointed to congressional consideration of the USCMA — the reworked trade deal between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
"The president has said he wants this U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement to go forward, and we are awaiting the language on enforceability," Pelosi said. "Does it mean that he can't do that? That's really up to him."
"He says that he wants to lower the cost of prescription drugs; the American people want us to do that," Pelosi said, offering another example of possible collaboration. "So if the president's saying, 'If you question my actions, I can't agree on any subject,' then the ball is in his court on that."
The current impeachment firestorm centers on a late July phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine, during which Trump asked his counterpart to look into a since-closed investigation of a Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden — an investigation Hunter's father, former Vice President Joe Biden, reportedly bragged about getting shut down.
Last week, before the public release of the phone call transcript and an Intelligence Community whistleblower's complaint about the call, Pelosi publicly announced that the House would move forward with "an official impeachment inquiry" against President Trump. Since then, three House committees have sent subpoenas to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
