These Jewish Lawmakers Helped Open the Door to a Trump Impeachment Inquiry

WASHINGTON — Three Jewish-American lawmakers were among the small group of moderate Democratic representatives whose shifting positions allowed Speaker of the Nancy Pelosi to open an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

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Until this week, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Elaine Luria of Virginia and Max Rose of New York were strongly opposed to starting impeachment proceedings against Trump. All three were part of the “blue wave” that handed Democrats control of the House of Representatives for the first time in almost a decade last year.

However, they changed their minds in light of the news about Trump’s attempts to recruit the government of Ukraine to assist his 2020 reelection campaign. Their decision to take another look at impeachment helped make it possible for Pelosi to finally “cross the Rubicon” and announce the beginning of an inquiry.

Pelosi had been in no hurry to open up an impeachment inquiry against the president. In fact, she fought against dozens of Democratic members of Congress for months, pushing back against representatives from the party’s most liberal wing over the impeachment issue. But then came this week’s change of heart.

Slotkin is a former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, who served under Republican and Democratic administrations; Luria is a retired navy officer who served for two decades on combat ships; and Rose is an army veteran who served in combat roles in Afghanistan. The three of them all won districts that were previously held by Republican representatives and, more importantly, that were captured by Trump in the 2016 presidential election.