Washington – Two House Democrats are launching a longshot bid to impeach President Donald Trump, a step that illustrates the deep political divide engulfing Washington and much of the country.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The effort by Reps. Al Green of Texas and Brad Sherman of California has little chance of success in the Republican-led House. They don’t even have the backing of many fellow Democrats.
Nevertheless, the lawmakers said Wednesday they are drafting articles of impeachment. They say Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating possible Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Federal authorities say they have definitive evidence that the Kremlin meddled in the U.S. presidential election.
“The question really is whether the president can obstruct justice with impunity,” Green said. “We live in a country where no congressmen, no senator and not even the president of the United States of America is above the law.”
Talk of impeachment could fire up both the Democratic and Republican bases.
To many Democrats and liberals, Trump is an ethically-challenged narcissist who tweets ridiculous statements at all hours of the day and night. To Trump supporters, he is a bona fide maverick who is keeping his promises by shaking up the Washington establishment.
The ugliness of the divide played out after Green first called for Trump to be impeached in a speech last month. Green, who is black, said his offices in Texas and Washington received phone calls from people calling him the N-word and saying he should be lynched.
He recently played tapes of several calls at a town hall meeting in his district.
Green said the U.S. Capitol Police dispatched two officers to his Houston district to guard him while Congress was in recess last week.
“No amount of intimidation will deter me,” Green said. “It may enhance my resolve.”
Neither Green nor Sherman would give a definitive timeline on when they plan to file the articles of impeachment. Sherman said they would be filed in weeks, not months.
Sherman acknowledged that any vote in the House to impeach Trump would fail — unless further evidence of possible wrongdoing comes to light.
Since Comey’s firing, the Justice Department has appointed a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to oversee the federal investigation.
Comey is scheduled to testify before the Senate intelligence committee Thursday. In prepared remarks released by the committee Wednesday, Comey says Trump sought his “loyalty” and asked what could be done to “lift the cloud” of investigation shadowing his administration.
Democratic leaders have distanced themselves from talk of impeachment, saying they want to see the outcome of the investigation.
“I can only speak for my personal views, and I think that a majority of the (Democratic) caucus is of the belief that we ought to allow the investigation to continue to its logical conclusion before making any determination,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., the vice chairwoman of the Democratic Caucus.
Sore Losers.. and just plain (same old democrat) Losers!
I would like to see him out of office, but why is impeachment the best or quickest way to get that done, instead of a criminal investigation? Also, why focus just on the Russia issue when his conflicts of interest and prima facie crimes are so much more widespread? The American people should also get back all the funds funneled by this administration to the Trump and Kushner family businesses. There also needs to be some punishment to act as a deterrence to others. Whether that means jail or fines or civil asset forfeiture is above my pay grade, but it needs to be a real deterrent so the country can be spared another such plague.
I’m not a professional in these things, but isn’t the police saying always, “follow the money”? How can we do that without release of his tax returns and other records? Not just him, but his family’s businesses. Also the Kushner businesses. That’s where the money is, so follow it. These congressmen may just be distracting people’s efforts, when it should be focused to getting the data released. Then, professional investigators can start doing the serious work. Actually, all the data should be made public, and I’ll tell you why I think that. The Trump people recently were caught sending fabricated letters to the FCC opposing net neutrality by impersonating the names of living and dead people. Trump himself has been caught impersonating other people in business. If that’s part of his MO, then average people need to check Trump’s business records to see if he impersonated them for stuff like claiming false business expenses.
They remind me of grade school children who, when they lose a game, begin yelling, “Do over, do over.” These liberals need to grow up.
When will we see the prosecution of the Clinton family? whose criminality is far greater than anything being thought of by the trumps Actually most of the politicians in washington should be sitting in jail.together with the leaders of both major parties.
> “The question really is whether the president can obstruct justice with impunity,”
Of course he (or she) can. Every pardon that the Presidents have ever given, and in particular the pre-pardons given (to such people as Weinberger who was impeached but pre-pardoned before trial) so the trial and further investigation were cancelled (and that meant the investigations into Bush the first was also cancelled as he was involved) is and was self-evidently obstruction of justice. And perfectly legal, then and now. If they don`t like it, then change the Constitution. But to pretend to have this feature in the Constitution for those they like but to ignore or bypass it for those they don`t like is itself the greatest violation of the pre-amble to the Constitution – where it states all are equal – and if the laws (including the rights and privileges of office) do not apply equally then it is all a joke.