Democratic impeachment fever dies down after Mueller hearing

The fever to impeach President Trump has stalled in the fractured House Democratic conference following special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony.

Without any major bombshells from Mueller, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took Democrats into a six-week summer recess without initiating any proceedings.

Pelosi is opposed to impeachment, in large part because a move to oust the president would be dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate and could be a politically toxic issue for Democrats in swing districts.

Pelosi advised Democrats to talk about impeachment if they need to boost their re-election prospects next year — but not in a way that challenged other members’ opposition to launching an impeachment effort.

That’s because just 40 percent of House Democrats — a growing number, but not a majority — support impeachment, according to a floor vote last week.

She said House Democrats instead will spend the summer focusing on bread and butter issues, not an impeachment inquiry.

But Pelosi has stepped on big toes to stall impeachment mania. She rebuffed outspoken impeachment proponent Jerry Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat who chaired the House Judiciary Committee’s Mueller hearing Wednesday, as well as freshman firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Democratic incumbents running for re-election in liberal precincts, meanwhile, are facing pressure from the left to impeach Trump.

Nadler, for example, is facing a primary from Lindsay Boyland, who is banging the impeachment drum.

“The Mueller hearings provide yet more evidence that we have a lawless, corrupt president who has abused his power repeatedly. But we didn’t need Robert Mueller to tell us that. We’ve known it for years. There’s one remedy: Impeach Donald Trump NOW,” Boyland said in a statement.

“We’ve built this movement because we are tired of empty talk.”

Nadler declined to comment on Thursday.

New York House Democrats are split — with 11 for impeachment and 10 against.

The far-left Squad — Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — is on the impeachment bandwagon.

But even Ocasio-Cortez said she was “not sure” if she’d bring up the subject during her scheduled meeting Friday with Pelosi.

“I’m certainly not coming in with an agenda,” she told The Post. “It’s possible that it could come up. But I think we just kind of want to have a more wide-ranging conversation. It’s totally possible.”

That meeting is supposed to help heal the sometimes-fractured Democratic caucus after Squad members split from Pelosi on recent votes.

The four freshmen voted against border funding, saying it didn’t go far enough to address the humanitarian crisis at detention centers.

Pelosi dismissed the dissenters, saying they “didn’t have any following,” adding, “They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”

Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a rebuttal to Pelosi. “That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country,” she wrote.

She also questioned why the speaker was “singling out newly elected women of color.”

Ocasio-Cortez also told The Post Thursday that she thought Mueller “certainly” advanced the case for impeaching Trump.

“He indicated that the president could be liable for crimes after leaving office,” the Bronx/Queens Democrat said.

But Pelosi repeated her reluctance to pursue impeachment.

“My position has always been whatever decision we make in that regard has to be done with our strongest possible hand and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts,” Pelosi said.

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