Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains cautious on impeachment talk

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still isn't ready to impeach President Donald Trump.

Even after special counsel Robert Mueller essentially called on Congress to pick up where his investigation left off, Pelosi isn't budging.

Scores of her Democratic lawmakers do want to start impeachment proceedings.

Outside groups say it's time. But Pelosi is carrying on as she has since taking the speaker's gavel in January, promising the House will methodically pursue its investigations of Trump -- wherever they lead.

This is Pelosi's balancing act: toggling between mounting pressure from other Democrats and her own political instincts.

She's sticking with her plans for a more measured, "ironclad" investigation that makes it clear to Americans the choices ahead.

It's uncharted territory for the speaker, and this Congress, with both high risks and possible rewards ahead of the 2020 election.

Trump declared his own challenge on Thursday. He called impeachment a "dirty, filthy, disgusting word" and said courts would never allow it.

"Many constituents want to impeach the president," Pelosi acknowledged shortly after Mueller's remarks Wednesday.

"But we want to do what is right and what gets results."
Instead, Mueller said, "the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting President of wrongdoing."
"The more the president obstructed justice ... the more certain we are going to be headed in a direction that I think many of us have already come out for -- and that is an impeachment inquiry."
More joined Thursday, including Rep. Greg Stanton, a freshman congressman from Arizona who said, "This conclusion will be unpopular with some, but it is the right thing to do."