Nancy Pelosi takes Trump impeachment off the table: ‘He ‘isn’t worth it’

Pelosi is a bitter critic of the president and one who has had the better of him in their political tussles so far, forcing Trump to shutdown the federal government, own responsibility for it and then cave in without getting the border wall fund that was centre of it.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives and the top Democrat, has sad she does not favour impeaching President Donald Trump, as has been threatened by many of her colleagues, because it would be “divisive” for the country and, most notably, “he’s just not worth it”.

US president Donald Trump after the State of the Union address, with Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, at the Capitol in Washington on February 5.(REUTERS)

Pelosi is a bitter critic of the president and one who has had the better of him in their political tussles so far, forcing Trump to shutdown the federal government, own responsibility for it and then cave in without getting the border wall fund that was centre of it.

But she had been cautious in the past about impeaching him. Now, she has made clear her opposition to it. “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” the speaker told The Washington Post.

“And he’s just not worth it.”

Many Democrats have been planning to move impeachment proceedings, but seniors in the party have been more circumspect about it. It’s divisive as Pelosi acknowledged.

And it’s bad politics. After a Republican-led congress impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998 (it did not make it past the senate, so he stayed in office) Democrats’s popularity soared, and they gained several seats in the November mid-term.

Pelosi doesn’t want to impeach Trump for those reasons. But she made clear how poorly she thought of him. Asked if she thought he was fit to be president Pelosi answered. “Are we talking ethically? Intellectually? Politically? What are we talking here?”

All of the above. No. No. I don’t think he is. I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity-wise unfit. No, I don’t think he’s fit to be president of the United States.”

There had been response from the president or the White House yet to the interview.