Trump Impeachment: Democrat Rep. Says Pelosi 'Deceived' President

Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO), who marks his 25th year with the House of Representatives on January 3, 2020, says the raging "War of Wills" between House majority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and president Donald Trump over Pelosi's gambit of withholding the articles of impeachment from the Senate is being won flat out by Pelosi. And that's because Pelosi is now firmly in "complete control" of Trump's mind.

Appearing on MSNBC Sunday evening, Cleaver was asked by host Alex Witt how soon can the American people expect the Speaker to send impeachment articles to the Senate?

"Have you spoken to the speaker at all in the recess and gotten an indication of the timing?" she asked, to which Cleaver gave an unexpected and roundabout reply.

"No, but I think it is important for the people to understand that Sun Tzu, in the 'The Art of War,' he said that political battles are usually based on deception," Cleaver explained.

"I think that Donald Trump falls for the deception that Nancy Pelosi is laying out there. For example, he thought, okay, we are going to get articles of impeachment, and they are going to send them over to the Senate, and Pelosi had deceived him.

"And at every turn, he is going to be facing the principles of the 'The Art of War.' So I think that if I were Donald Trump I would try to figure out what she is going to do next because she is in complete control of Donald Trump’s mind."

From last Friday to Sunday, Trump flooded Twitter with a horde of posts raging against Pelosi -- who he blasted as "crazy" at one point -- against his impeachment last December 18, against Democrats and against the anonymous whistleblower that ignited his impeachment.

“Why should crazy Nancy Pelosi, just because she has a slight majority in the House, be allowed to impeach the president of the United States," Trump tweeted.

He then added, “Also, very unfair with no due process, proper representation, or witnesses. Now Pelosi is demanding everything the Republicans weren’t allowed to have in the House. Dems want to run majority Republican Senate. Hypocrites!”

Trump seemed to use much of his spare time to vent his fury against Pelosi for forever staining his legacy with the shame of impeachment. Trump even spent Christmas evening blasting Pelosi and the “scam” impeachment inquiry against him.

Pelosi responded to these tweets and previous ones where Trump complained Pelosi had given him “the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress," In reply, Pelosi tweeted: "President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phoney complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now?”

Given Trump's history of immediately lashing out at attacks against him without thoughtful contemplation, Cleaver might be reading the situation accurately. Pelosi's continuing provocation of Trump may also mean the president will one day tweet really damaging information Democrats can use against him in the Senate trial.

Trump already did that by retweeting a message from a Republican admirer of his who revealed the identity of the anonymous whistleblower. This move and his past attempts at revealing the whistleblower's identity is evidence enough of Trump’s law-breaking retaliatory intent in violation of 5 U.S.C. § 2302 (b)(8)-(9).

Trump might also have violated federal whistleblower protections via his tweetstorm on December 27, which many see as an attempt to name and shame the alleged whistleblower.