Washington Post: “House leaders had hoped to pass the disaster aid bill by unanimous consent, allowing them to move the measure despite most lawmakers having left Washington for the Memorial Day recess. But the objection from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) holds up the legislation until lawmakers return, currently scheduled for June 3.”

“The bill was approved by the Senate on Thursday and appears to have President Trump’s support.”

Politico: “The California Democrat sent lawmakers out the door Thursday for a 10-day Memorial Day break after tamping down swelling demands from House Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump.”

“After working to mollify the party’s restive left flank this week by pointing to a pair of legal victories in their oversight battle with Trump, Democrats were ushered into the recess with new talking points from the caucus’ messaging arm that were conspicuously silent on impeachment.”

New York Times: “Ms. Pelosi set out Thursday morning to pick a fight with Mr. Trump, three people close to her said, part of a strategy to unnerve a president who has defied the efforts of House Democrats to subpoena documents and summon witnesses to testify about his conduct.”

“But her decision to dramatize the fight also represented an embrace of Mr. Trump’s own signature political tactic: an attempt to divert attention from a divisive internal debate — in this case a drive by two dozen of her caucus members to push ahead with impeachment — with a headline-grabbing attack, in hopes of uniting her own political base.”

Politico: “They’ve been so busy fighting technical battles over access to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that they’ve barely had time to speak directly to Americans about its damning public findings of President Trump’s conduct.”

“Trump and Attorney General William Barr, they say, drew them into process-focused skirmishes — battles over redactions, access to evidence and even a multi-day fight over the format of a hearing with Barr which the attorney general later refused to attend.”

“Lost in it all was the vivid evidence Mueller uncovered about Trump’s efforts to thwart the investigation of his campaign’s links to Russia. Now, Democrats say, it’s time to start telling that story, too.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told MSNBC that special counsel Robert Mueller wants to testify before his committee, but only in private.

Mueller would give a public opening statement and agree to allow a transcript of his private testimony to be released publicly.

Nadler said Mueller doesn’t want to participate in a televised open hearing that could be a spectacle.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) told CNN that some of his Republican colleagues have sympathized with his recent statement that President Trump engaged in impeachable conduct. 

Said Amash: “So people who are baffled by it, I wonder how carefully they read volume two because it’s there. There’s a difference between skimming the pages and actually reading it and understanding it.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders inched closer to supporting impeachment proceedings against President Trump, saying “it may be time” for the House Judiciary Committee to determine whether to start the process, Politico reports.

Said Sanders: “I do understand where House members are coming from. And you’ve got this guy who is refusing to respect the Constitution, equal powers, and is rejecting requests for members of the administration to come forward.”

He added: “So, you know, I think it may be time at least to begin the process through the Judiciary Committee to determine whether or not there are impeachment proceedings.”

A new Monmouth poll finds 73% of Americans say that special counsel Robert Mueller should appear before Congress to testify about his investigation. This includes 58% who say that Mueller should appear at a public hearing and 14% who say that it should only be in a closed setting.

The survey also finds 67% say that former White House counsel Don McGahn should appear before Congress to testify about what he knew as a key witness in the investigation. This includes 56% who say that McGahn should appear at a public hearing and 10% who say that it should only be in a closed setting.

In addition, 69% say that Congress should get a full version of the Mueller report along with supporting documents.

“The House Intelligence Committee will not enforce a subpoena against Attorney General William Barr as planned Wednesday, after the Justice Department agreed at the 11th hour to produce the redacted material and underlying information from the special counsel’s report that the panel sought, albeit more slowly than it wanted,” the Washington Post reports.

However, Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) also warned that the subpoena “will remain in effect and will be enforced should the Department fail to comply with the full document request.”

Playbook: “If you’ve watched Speaker Nancy Pelosi for any period of time in the majority, you know she has an uncanny ability to stay unflinchingly focused on a goal, without getting panicked or itchy or changing course. (Ironically, it’s a trait she shares with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — though don’t bring that up with them or their friends.)”

“At the moment, Pelosi’s goal is quite clear: to avoid rushing to impeach President Trump. If you talk to her allies, her advisers and people close to her, they’ll tell you she believes the impeachment route is an all-around loser right now.”

“Pelosi allies firmly believe that if Democrats impeach Trump, they will lose the presidency and the House in 2020 — period. They also don’t believe Congress or the American public is behind impeachment at the moment. Further, they say that launching an inquiry that isn’t airtight could backfire as they pursue other legal options to extract documents from the White House.”

Washington Post: The case for and against impeachment.

Aaron Blake: “Drawing hard and fast conclusions about American politics is often difficult, given the country’s relative youth. We quite simply don’t have that many elections with which to analyze the effectiveness of various political strategies. And that’s especially the case with impeachment, which has been undertaken only twice in American history. What’s more, these assumptions about impeachment are largely based upon a sample size of one: Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the late 1990s.”

“As I wrote a while back, the timeline of Clinton’s impeachment seemed to work against Republicans. Having begun impeachment proceedings on the eve of the 1998 election, the initial backlash was instantly able to register at the ballot box and help Democrats score unexpected success in the midterm elections. Republicans then officially impeached Clinton on Dec. 19, 1998, and Clinton’s approval rating hit its highest mark ever — 73 percent — in a Gallup poll that was conducted starting that day.”

“But that timeline is not today’s timeline. Today, there is actually time for the impeachment proceedings to register with the American people.”