Nancy Pelosi just baited Donald Trump

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff held a lengthy joint press conference this morning. They were impressive, but they didn’t exactly reveal a lot of new information. Still, they had a few goals here, and one of them appears to be working already.

First, Pelosi and Schiff made a point of pushing their legislative agenda on prescription drugs and other matters. It’s not going to happen as long as Donald Trump is in office and the GOP controls the Senate. But it served to take the legs out from Trump’s recent narrative that House Democrats are only focused on impeaching him.

Second, Schiff made a point of pushing beleaguered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo front and center. After Pompeo’s confession this morning that he was in on the Trump-Ukraine phone call, and the State Department Inspector General’s testimony to Congress today, it looks like the Democrats are trying to force Trump to sacrifice Pompeo by ousting him.

Third, Donald Trump has been obsessed with Adam Schiff for the past few days, calling for his arrest for treason and other nonsense. Nancy Pelosi was clearly looking to bait Trump into focusing on her instead. That’s what a good leader does. It’s also useful, because whenever Trump starts going after Pelosi, he ends up losing badly. Sure enough, Trump began ranting about Pelosi on Twitter before the press conference was even over.