Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

Join me tonight at 9PM ET as I live-tweet Nancy Pelosi's Town Hall, hosted by CNN. The Speaker of the House will discuss how Dems are moving forward with impeachment as well as other legislation unfolding in the House.

The House has passed legislation at a rapid clip. 70 bills this year alone. 400 total since taking House. The "do nothing" narrative is propaganda that depends on people not knowing any better, bottom line. Here's the track for the 70 this year:
govtrack.us/congress/bills…

If I achieve nothing else in my reporting, over the course of my career, let it be that I quell the constant manipulation of the public with propaganda like this about what is actually done in taxpayer funded Houses of government.

CNN's town hall featuring Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi begins shortly at 9 PM ET. My live-tweet thread will begin here.

As the forum kicks off, moderator Jake Tapper notes the gravity of developments today.
This a.m. Pelosi said Trump abused his power, violated the Constitution and directed lawmakers to draft articles of impeachment. But does she believe he should be impeached?

I believe we should introduce articles of impeachment, she says. It's a sad day, I hoped we could have avoided but notes how "you cannot violate the Constitution in full view" without repercussion.

"If we were not to proceed, it would be clear our democracy is gone, our president is king and he can do whatever he wants in violation of the law, undermining checks and balances," Pelosi says.

Pelosi says Trump is not protecting or defending the Constitution.
The "beauty" of what the Framers did with founding documents was to make them amendable. But the genius of it all, she says, was the system of checks and balances. "They did not want a monarch or president king."

"This is about how he has ignored oversight of Congress. There's something very strange there that hasn't been an intervention by his own people," the speaker says.

Pelosi jabs at Sinclair reporter who asked her a question this morning, (in the line of whether she "hated" Trump) - "Is that a reporter?" she says, to laughter from audience.

For him to say that, was really disgusting to me, she says, acknowledging that reporter was quoting Rep Collins who suggested during hearings earlier that Pelosi hated Trump and that's what is driving impeachment.

She returns this to her message of unity and how this isn't about her, its what the founders promised re: checks and balances.
Asked about the "nervous fit" comment and Trump's remarks that he doubts she really prays for him, she says its a reflection on his own state of mind.

We have a UMD freshman, Nyah Stewart, with question: what made her decide to continue impeachment proceedings despite it being so close to election?
1 thing Trump did was to undermine, jeopardize the integrity of elections by asking foreign power to intervene,

and to announce invstgn into potential rival and if he isn't stopped from doing that, he will continue. He invited intervention.
We cannot let him continue to jeopardize elections without holding him accountable for it, Pelosi adds.

More voters are opposed to impeachment than not right now, Tapper says. If she wakes up on election day in 2020 and polls show impeaching Trump helped him get reelected, would she regret it? No, it's not about politics, partisanship, this is about honoring our oath of office.

I truly believe that the times have found us to save our democracy, defend our democracy for the people, Pelosi says.

This is a challenge to the republic because left to his own devices, POTUS is taking the U.S. away from a system of checks and balances.
Ukraine was under assault from Russian aggression and Trump withheld funds that could help them defend themselves.

It was wrong to do, but in the course of doing it, he violated his oath, she adds.

What information does public need for the 2020 election to be a referendum on Trump? Pelosi points to the criticism that House should have let this play in courts.

"We have court cases because Trump is obstructing justice by appealing everything, even as courts overwhelmingly rule in Congress favor," she says. Other cases are still held up in SCOTUS.

Some of that information, if they win out in the courts, may be out by the time the Senate takes up the trial, "if we do impeach in the House," Pelosi adds.

On why she opposed impeachment in the past: When she became Speaker the first time, there was "overwhelming" call for her to impeach Bush on the war of Iraq (which she opposed to because she knew there was no nuclear weapons in Iraq.

"I knew it was a misrepresentation to the public but it was not grounds for impeachment. They won the election, they made a representation and to this day, people think that it was the right thing to do," she says.

"They impeached Clinton for personal indiscretion and lying about it," she says, calling Clinton's actions "stupid" but then, after gasps, saying how she thought he was great POTUS but his choices were stupid during impeachment.

Then she goes to Qs about whether Mueller report : It was repeated "over and over; in that report that the president's actions were impeachable offenses. The Ukraine ordeal removed all doubt. He undermined nat sec, jeopardized integrity of elections as he violated oath

On Mueller Report, would that be included in articles, "With all due respect," she says, they're not writing the articles of impeachment here tonight. They are all working together. Same response as this morning, she won't answer for now.

Giuliani went to Ukraine to keep investigating Bidens. Giuliani said until this matter revolved, it'd be a major obstacle to U.S. helping Ukr. beat back corruption. What does she make of it?
I'm a busy person, she says.

Dems prepared Voting Rights Act today, H.R. 3, the Lowering Rx Drugs Act, working on USMCA trade agreement. "I don't have time to keep track of Rudy Giuliani, I just don't," she says.

"But I do think it's further indication of the arrogance of it all. Every authority has said there's no truth to rumor that Ukrainians were interfering in elections...This is about Putin. All roads to lead to Putin."

And Giuliani's pursuit in Ukr. just emboldens Putin, she adds

If Trump is reelected and continues to disregard the law, what checks will there be on his presidency?
"Let's not even contemplate that, really. The damage this administration has done to America - we're a great country, we can sustain - two terms? I don't know," Pelosi said.

The Trump administration has "degraded" America, she notes the damage to environment and climate especially.
"We don't agonize, we organize," the speaker says, then reflecting on climate crisis, adds, "Civilization is at stake"

Though we pulled out of Paris agreement, she says, "We're still in" and to the Speaker, that's what her recent trip to Madrid for COP25 represented

A former intern for Eric Swalwell posing Q: why are lawful subpoenas allowed to be ignored w/o consequence and what steps will House take to make sure they have critical info related to the investigation?

Pelosi: When we've issued them, POTUS objects, takes us to court. But Dems have won their cases - Deutsche Bank, re: Trump's fin stmts, Mazars case.

Article III of Nixon impeachment was that he did not respect congressional subpoena power.
"The president is, in a way self-impeaching, because he is obstructing judges by not honoring the subpoenas," she says.

Tapper notes how Dems call it obstruction, WH calls it separation of powers. So why is it obstruction of justice for WH to go to courts and have courts be final arbiter?

The point is, this is information they should be making available to Congress. This shouldn't be about the courts.

Some of the court issues are about "do we have access to grand jury information" questions and that would elucidate actions Trump admin has taken. Even in Nixon era, Nixon ultimately gave access.

Pelosi wants to quit talking impeachment and talk about other issues, like climate, COP25. But she won't get away too quick One more question. At least!

Jinwook Hwang asks about the divisive political atmosphere. How can she unify the nation if throughout the impeachment process and what advice would she give a future speaker about "keeping the republic?"

The country was divided and he was a very powerful force in this long before impeachment, she notes.
She also notes a recent poll where 53% of respondents said Trump was a better president than Lincoln. She pauses for effect, then:

"You see there's some roots of disagreement there," she says. "Maybe they're still fighting the civil war, I don't know what that could be. But again, he's fanned the flames. Some of that division was there before him, but he's made it much, much worse."

She talks about the bills languishing without Senate approval - like legislation that would address gun violence, violence against women, discrim against LGBT, promoting net neturality, climate action, lowering Rx drugs and H.R. 1, aimed at rooting out dark money in politics

Politics hasn't always been this way, she says. It will take some healing and repair to get us to a better place.

One of the ways Americans heal is through the arts. It's where we find our common ground.

Music, plays, movies, you laugh, you cry, you're inspired, she says. It also helps put you into the shoes of other people, consider the other's perspective.
The Speaker paraphrased a quote from Percey Shelley, saying, "The greatest force for moral good is imagination."

The Shelley quote, fleshed out: "A man to be greatly good must imagine intensely & comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination."

We're back and now onto the USMCA - the trade deal between U.S., Mexico, Canada. Will it be passed before the holiday season? "It will be passed when we have the language to enforce it, in it," she says.

Pelosi: "I hoped this could be a template for future trade agreements and that it would be so good, we could use as a model going forward. We're not at that place because we're not there with enforcement."

"There's issues with the environment, pharmaceuticals, workers' rights. If you don't have enforcement, you're just having a conversation, not an effective instrument for trade," the Speaker says.

Why does she want to remove legal protections for tech companies from USMCA? She focuses primarily on how certain regs don't do enough to protect children on social media.

A government shutdown on the way? Pelosi says she doesn't think we're headed for that. They are on a good path to be finished by the 21st and if not, they'll enforce a continuing resolution until after Christmas.

Tia Simmons, a teacher in D.C. asks Pelosi how she feels about Dems doing away with Obamacare and replacing it w/Medicare for all? Tapper specifies that this is Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren.
She's not for doing away with Obamacare, she says.

She's pitching Obamacare numbers, celebrating how it lifted millions of families into better healthcare. "We're very proud of what it is. We know we could improve upon it. Certain aspects have expired must be replaced"

She'd rather call for healthcare for all Americans. It may lead to Medicare for All, she says. She wanted a public option during ACA negotiations, that could improve it. Whatever you want it to eventually have, she says, don't do away with ACA to get to Medicare for All.

Tapper: If Dems wins in 2020, would she feel "free to go home" as she said she would had Clinton won in '16 because ACA would be protected?
"We'll see, I'm not on a timetable, I'm on a mission," she says.

We should be wrapping shortly. I'll have a story to come for @CourthouseNews in case you missed tonight's live-tweet.
(Wow, live-tweeting for an hour feels like a walk in the park after the last few weeks!)