Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiReuters

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said at a press conference on Tuesday she will not stage a vote on the House floor to officially launch an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

The decision came after Democratic leaders, returning to Washington following a two-week recess, had reached out to members of their diverse caucus to gauge the party's support for such a vote, reported The Hill.

After back-to-back meetings with party leaders and then the full caucus, Pelosi announced that no such vote would take place.

Democratic leadership sources cautioned, however, that the decision could be "reassessed at some point", according to Politico.

"There's no requirement that we have a vote, and so at this time we will not be having a vote," Pelosi told reporters during the press briefing in the Capitol.

Pelosi announced last month that she would be launching formal impeachment proceedings against Trump over allegations that he threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless its government investigated actions by his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

So far, a vote has not yet taken place on the impeachment process and Democrats have defended the process, which has multiple House committees interviewing witnesses in private and gathering evidence related to allegations that Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pressured Ukrainian officials to begin an investigation into Biden and his son.

“The processes that are being pursued are consistent with the Constitution and the laws and, by the way, Republican rules," insisted House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), according to Politico.

He called a full House vote authorizing the inquiry “not necessary."

According to the report, Pelosi and other top Democrats could not come to an agreement among themselves during discussions on Monday over whether to move forward with the vote, which would have been a dramatic escalation of their impeachment battle with Trump.

The impeachment inquiry vote would undermine a key Republican talking point that the Democrats’ inquiry isn’t valid because they haven’t held a floor vote, as in past presidential impeachment proceedings. It could also squeeze vulnerable Republicans by forcing them to go on the record. Many Republicans, so far, have attempted to stay away from the burgeoning scandal consuming the White House, noted Politico.