Dear President Trump,

Last night during my usual cruise through the evening news, I read a WP article (by Mike DeBonis) about Nancy Pelosi and the House Leadership having salvaged the month of July. The article detailed the legislative accomplishments they were able to achieve even with some important differences within the ranks. Just an aside here – I’d rather be affiliated with a party that keeps it real and doesn’t paper over differences than with a party that requires unquestioning loyalty to anyone’s agenda, let alone to that of a racist would-be autocrat.

The reason I’m bringing up this particular article, though, is that there’s a quote from Pelosi that gave me shivers:

“I consider myself a weaver,” she said, “just at the loom just making all of those threads come together in the boldest possible way.”

She was talking about working with her varied membership and while I think it’s terrific she used a metaphor that conjures a traditionally female activity, this was not the reason for my shivers. Rather it’s that just three days ago I wrote to you about ikat weaving and likened it to the current debate around impeachment. Since you have no idea what I said about this I’ll remind you that while I think many of us are willing to go with an ikat version where the edges are somewhat blurry but the central motifs (e.g., instances of corruption and obstruction) are clear, Pelosi has not been willing to go the impeachment route unless/until “the case for impeachment was rendered in bold solids from the get go.” The combination of her reference to weaving and her emphasis on boldness felt like a ‘doo-doo doo-doo’ moment.

Although I’m sure you’re painfully aware of it, and it likely explains a good deal of your extremely poor behavior, I was surprised to learn this morning that the House Judiciary Committee actually started an impeachment inquiry back in January (see yesterday’s WP editorial by Joshua Matz). I was also surprised, and extremely pleased, to learn that the Judiciary Committee filed a petition in Federal Court to access the redacted portions of the Mueller report in support of their impeachment inquiry process. You might want to do a mental “la-la-la” right now, but here’s what Nadler told reporters about the petition:

““We are exercising our full Article 1 authority and continuing our investigation of the president’s malfeasances,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Friday.”

It sounds like from January until yesterday it was “impeachment inquiry lite,” but now the gloves are off and you all are going to have to pony up for real. House Resolution 430 stipulates that under Article 1 of the Constitution the Committee is charged with evaluating the Mueller grand jury materials and compelling testimony from McGhan. So Pelosi is on board and we’ve finally moved into a full-on impeachment inquiry process. Hallelujah!

May we be safe from your temper tantrums.
May we be willing to stay the course and hold you accountable.
May Mr. Nadler and his committee stay healthy and strong.
May you not start a war.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson