‘We Have Our Options’: Pelosi Discusses Possibility Of Impeaching Trump To Stop SCOTUS Nomination

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) addressed on Sunday the possibility of impeaching President Donald Trump as part of a ploy to stop him from filling a recently vacated Supreme Court seat, saying that Democrats “have arrows in our quiver.”

ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, a Democrat, asked Pelosi about the possibility that Democrats could impeach Trump to stop him from filling the seat.

“Some have mentioned the possibility, if they try to push through a nominee in a lame duck session, that you and the House could move to impeach President Trump or Attorney General Barr as a way of stalling and preventing the Senate from acting on this nomination,” Stephanopoulos said.

Pelosi responded, “Well, we have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now.”

WATCH:

Stephanopoulos pressed Pelosi on the issue, asking, “But to clear, you’re not taking any arrows out of your quiver, you’re not ruling anything out?

”Pelosi then gave a puzzling answer, responding: “Good morning. Sunday morning. The, uh, we have a responsibility, we take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of the American people, uh, that, uh, is, uh, when the we weigh the equities of protecting our democracy requires us to use every arrow in our quiver.”

The later portion of Pelosi’s remarks can be found in the video below from ABC News’s “This Week” starting at the 1:55 mark.

The segment came after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at 87-years-old on Friday after losing her fifth battle with cancer.

The Supreme Court released the following statement in response to Ginsburg’s death:

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died this evening surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, D.C., due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer. She was 87 years old. Justice Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1993. She was the second woman appointed to the Court and served more than 27 years. She is survived by her two children: Jane Carol Ginsburg (George Spera) and James Steven Ginsburg (Patrice Michaels), four grandchildren: Paul Spera (Francesca Toich), Clara Spera (Rory Boyd), Miranda Ginsburg, Abigail Ginsburg, two step-grandchildren: Harjinder Bedi, Satinder Bedi, and one greatgrandchild: Lucrezia Spera. Her husband, Martin David Ginsburg, died in 2010.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. said of Justice Ginsburg: “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Justice Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, March 15, 1933. She married Martin D. Ginsburg in 1954. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, attended Harvard Law School, and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edmund L. Palmieri, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1959- 1961. From 1961- 1963, she was a research associate and then associate director of the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure. She was a Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law from 1963-1972, and Columbia Law School from 1972- 1980, and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California from 1977-1978. In 1971, she was instrumental in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU’s General Counsel from 1973-1980, and on the National Board of Directors from 1974-1980. She was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. During her more than 40 years as a Judge and a Justice, she was served by 159 law clerks.

While on the Court, the Justice authored My Own Words (2016), a compilation of her speeches and writings.

A private interment service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.