Pergram: Dems want another independent counsel, about 80 percent chance they'll hold impeachment vote

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Chad Pergram, Fox News' Senior Producer for Capitol Hill, said on Thursday that he thought there was about an 80 percent chance that Democrats would proceed with a vote on impeaching President Trump.

"I would put it at 80 percent right now," Pergram said during Thursday's "Hemmer Time" podcast.

His comments came just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., held a press conference in which she pushed back on the idea that she needed to hold an official vote.

President Trump has been pushing Congress to hold a vote, apparently believing Democrats were either disingenuous or setting themselves up for a political catastrophe by pushing impeachment.

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According to Pergram, Pelosi may have signaled her disposition towards impeachment when she sat with the press and, after discussing policy issues, allowed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to answer questions related to impeachment.

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"I think that was a very symbolic act by the Speaker. Actions speak louder than words," Pergram told Fox News host Bill Hemmer.

Pelosi, he speculated, could have been "completely punting to Schiff" or trying to distance herself from the potential political fallout. "Was this a way to kind of say, alright, Adam, ball's in your court -- don't screw this up and if you do, it's not on me?" Pergram asked.

At the end of September, Pelosi announced an official impeachment inquiry after months of resisting Democratic calls to do so amid the Russia investigation. It wasn't until details surfaced surrounding Trump's July call with Ukraine that she announced an inquiry.

Pergram told Hemmer that Democrats wanted another independent counsel like former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who effectively closed his part of the Russia investigation in the summer of 2019.

Pergram noted that prior impeachment proceedings -- for former Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon -- involved special prosecutors who provided evidence for committees.

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"Here, they're not taking Robert Mueller's work. We're into a different silo of information here -- even though those silos may be cousins, Ukraine and Russia," Pergram said.

"And so, while most of this work is in the Ukraine silo, very little of it dealt with Robert Mueller ... if you talk to Adam Schiff, he'll tell you this, that they are doing the work of the independent counsel because that doesn't exist in this model right now and they're saying if Bill Barr, the attorney general, was on the ball, he would have appointed an independent counsel to look into this issue," he added.

Listen to the full interview on the latest episode of "Hemmer Time" here, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.