Thank your MoC's for voting "Yes" on impeachment investigation, and tell them not to rush it.
Note: only one of the following two Congresswomen represents you. To find out which one, click here.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
SF Office: (415) 556-4862
DC Office: (202) 225-4965
Call the SF office first, but try the DC office if you can’t get through. If you get voicemail, hang up and try a few more times to talk to a real person. Don’t give up! Short direct messages are most effective. Hate the phone? Resistbot is your friend.
Rep. Jackie Speier
San Mateo Office: (650) 342-0300
DC Office: (202) 225-3531
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Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
Thank you for voting "Yes" this coming Thursday on a broad, complete, thorough, and public impeachment investigation of Trump's crimes and those of his administration. Please do not rush this crucial investigation. Take as much time as needed to expose ALL impeachable offenses.
Republicans will not allow a fair trial in the Senate, so the House investigation must function as the trial. No articles of impeachment should be sent to the Senate until public pressure ensures that a vote for conviction is possible.
Background
Democratic Party leaders are calling for a swift, narrowly-focused House investigation leading to a quick vote on articles of impeachment.
*"Quick" and "narrow" are not what we need.*
They want a quick impeachment resolution so they can shift back to 2020 "kitchen-table topics" of healthcare, jobs, etc. But the main kitchen-table issue of 2020 is going to be Trump and impeachment regardless of how many "message" bills the House passes to die in the Senate. And Pelosi herself has expressed frustration with the media failing to cover the “dinner-table topics” of her House bills. Sending articles of impeachment to the Senate won't cause them to change their longstanding aversion to covering policy issues.
It's time now to leave election messaging to the presidential and congressional candidates. The job now facing House Democrats is to carry out their constitutional duty with a broad, thorough, and detailed exploration of all the crimes committed by Trump and all the crimes carried out under his authority by his appointees and cronies.
So long as the House considers impeachment, Democrats control the stage and drive the public narrative. If that continues into 2020, it helps rather than harms campaigns against Trump and campaigns around the policy issues that derive from the Trump/Republican agenda.
But once the House votes out articles of impeachment, control of the stage and public narrative shift to Moscow Mitch and the Republican Party who will limit, constrain, and shape the trial for their benefit. There is no way they will permit Democrats to mount an effective case against Trump in the Senate. Therefore, the real prosecution has to be carried out through public testimony in the House investigation committees -- that's the only real chance Democrats will have.
Omar Little of "The Wire" told it true, "You come at the king, you best not miss." As matters now stand, there are not yet 20 Republican senators with the courage to vote against Trump. If the senate fails to convict, Trump's sense of absolute impunity will have been confirmed by a Senate vote and the Republican "vindication" juggernaut becomes a propaganda tsunami. And once Trump no longer fears impeachment, he becomes free to rule by declaration and decree.
There's no way to know what crimes an unconstrained Trump administration might feel free to commit, from retaliatory investigations of political allies, to blatant election tampering, to even more brazen corruption in the executive branch.
There's no way to know what outrages against democracy and common decency a vindictive Trump might commit. We don't want to find out the hard way. So Democratic Party leaders must not rush to judgment. They must take as much time as needed for a comprehensive and detailed investigation of all the facts. No articles of impeachment should be sent to the Senate until the votes for conviction are there.
No matter how long it takes.