The House Speaker didn’t consider it an impeachable offense.

Over half a million Iraqis died in the conflict. Nearly 5,000 American troops also died in the conflict. The war strengthened the radical extremism it was supposed to fight while costing American taxpayers more than $2.4 trillion, much of which went to defense contractors like then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton. George W. Bush began this war lying to Saddam Hussein that he had an arsenal of weapons of destruction.

But Nancy Pelosi doesn’t think that was impeachable.

In this video, Nancy Pelosi says that George W Bush was lying to her and she tried to start war. But she does not believe that this was an impeachable offense.

Incredible.

pic.twitter.com/y6t1RlB8Fz

— cabral (@axcomrade) December 8, 2019

In footage from a CNN Town Hall, Pelosi said she knew that the infamous WMD-narrative created by the Bush administration wasn’t real. That’s unsettling on its own. She reveals this with candor and casualness, but it goes beyond that. Even on live television it doesn’t occur to Pelosi just how bad this answer sounds. She chalks up her passiveness in pursuing Bush’s impeachment to “not wanting to make [impeachment] a way of life” for Americans. We were saved from another impeachment crisis by her rationality in allowing the president to start an illegal war that was in fact started with a lie she knew.

Pelosi’s reasoning doesn’t make sense—starting a war based on a coordinated public lie is illegal, and therefore more than enough grounds for impeachment. Her comments illustrate a core problem with the Democrats’ view of impeachment: presidents can only be impeached when they mess with the two-party system. Richard Nixon oversaw illegal bombing of Cambodia and aggressively ramped up American military presence in Vietnam, but was only impeached when his minions broke into the Watergate to steal Democratic documents. And despite Donald Trump’s rampant corruption, Pelosi et. al. After he was bribed by an international government for information on Joe Biden (a possible opponent in 2020’s election), he decided to pursue him.

The admission lets slip Pelosi’s (and her party’s) adherence to foreign policy consensus. Although many Democrats opposed the invasion, over 39% of Democratic Representatives and 58% percent Democratic Senators voted for it (including Biden). They probably knew about the WMD lie as Pelosi acknowledges. She said she would’ve listened to the case for Bush’s impeachment over Iraq but it was almost certainly never a serious proposition.

Pelosi’s logic, though broken, has an odd connection to the present. Trump’s impeachment is easy to lose interest in because it’s an uber-specific offense tied directly to electoral politics. It was claimed by the Democratic leadership that it was simple for voters to understand. But it’s hard to imagine Trump’s quid pro quo is more difficult to comprehend than any of the innumerable impeachable offenses he’s already committed, from profiting off the presidency to his administration trying to start an illegal war of its own in Iran. Only when the Democratic Party’s standing (and frontrunning candidate) were threatened did Pelosi & co. find an issue on which to impeach Trump.

Resistance liberals idolize Nancy Pelosi because she’s branded herself as some sort of Trump stopper, withstanding his infantile rage and sarcastically clapping in his face. But Sunday’s video is a fresh reminder she’d sooner go after him for threatening her own power than starting a literal war.

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