Impeachment Media Round-Up

Impeachment has been in the news lately with the recent sentencing of Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and as the Mueller investigation continues. But we’ve known of Trump’s impeachable offenses, since he took the oath of office.

Check out our round-up of the latest news on impeachment proceedings against the President:

  • The New York Times: The Inevitability of Impeachment
  • Washington Post: If Trump’s actions aren’t impeachable, then what is?
  • The Hill: Mueller’s Choice: Impeachment Does Not Preclude Indictment
  • NBC News: Trump Confides to Friends He’s Concerned About Impeachment
  • Inquisitr: Donald Trump Impeachment Proceedings Could Start Soon, Predicts Key Watergate Figure
  • The Nation: The Impeachment of Donald Trump Is No Longer ‘Off the Table
  • The Boston Globe: Why Aren’t We Talking About Impeachment?
  • USA Today: How House Democrats Can Save Democracy and the Rule of Law: Impeach Donald Trump ASAP
  • Bloomberg: When Impeachment Is Mandatory
  • Salon: The Case for Impeaching Trump: I Voted to Impeach Nixon — I Can Recognize a President Running Amok
  • Thread by Harvard Law Professor, John Coates, on impeachment:

To get involved in the movement to hold the President accountable to the law, click here.


Rashida Tlaib Delivers ‘The Constitution Demands It’ to New Members of Congress

On November 27, US Representative-elect Rashida Tlaib delivered the book, The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump, to every new member of Congress, as reported by the Independent Journal Review.

Tlaib tweeted about the gift:

Representative-elect Tlaib is one of the first of two Muslim women elected to Congress and is the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress. She has been vocal about her support for pursuing impeachment investigations of Donald Trump and is committed to holding our elected officials accountable to the Constitution.

Thank you, Representative-elect Tlaib, for your dedication to our democracy and for your efforts to provide new members of Congress with the tools to take action.

To learn more, read the article in the Independent Journal Review.

Photo by Rashida Tlaib


Exit Polls: 40% of 2018 Voters Support Impeachment

According to exit polls from Tuesday’s midterm elections, 40% of voters support an impeachment investigation of Donald Trump.

The report by CNN reminds us that, “40% is much higher support for impeachment than most presidents face, including President Bill Clinton, who was actually impeached.” CNN also reports that, “support for impeachment is the highest in California, where 54% of 2018 voters back it, followed by New York with 52% support.”

Since these exit polls were conducted, the President has engaged in further egregious, unconstitutional behavior. On Wednesday, Trump made his latest move to obstruct justice by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had appropriately recused himself from overseeing investigations into the 2016 election, and installing Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist whose appointment appears to be unconstitutional, as acting Attorney General. Whitaker has repeatedly spoken out against the Mueller investigation and is now involved in overseeing the investigation, against which he has a clear bias.

Trump further engaged in impeachable behavior this week when he undermined the freedom of the press by revoking the press pass of a CNN reporter, Jim Acosta, on fraudulent accusations of assault.

Following the midterm elections, it is clear that support for impeachment is growing. We must push even harder for Congress to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Trump.


Salon: I voted to impeach Nixon – I can recognize a president running amok

Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman of New York served on the House Judiciary Committee that investigated the role of President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate scandal and voted to impeach him. Now, in an excerpt from her book, The Case for Impeaching Trump, Congresswoman Holtzman draws connections between the Nixon Administration and the current administration, laying out a clear case for launching impeachment investigations against Donald Trump.

In her excerpt for Salon, Congresswoman Holtzman details the many constitutional violations Trump has perpetrated. These include obstruction of justice and violation of the emoluments clause, among many others.

Holtzman draws a strong parallel between Trump’s actions and those of Nixon, detailing the events that lead to Nixon’s impeachment. She describes the Watergate coverup and Nixon’s order to fire the special prosecutor investigating him. In response, she says, the “American people drew the line:”

They demanded that Congress take action, and it did. It started an inquiry, which resulted in a bipartisan vote for articles of impeachment, forcing Nixon to resign. It was in response to obstruction that the articles of impeachment against Nixon were adopted. Their message? Presidents cannot block, tamper with, and destroy the machinery of justice that is aimed at them. If they do, it is at their peril. They face impeachment, removal from office, even imprisonment. But if we allow presidents to block, tamper with, and destroy the machinery of justice that is aimed at them, we do so at our peril. The rule of law will go up in smoke. We will enshrine two standards of justice, one for the powerful and one for everyone else. We will find ourselves on the road to tyranny.

Congresswoman Holtzman is right. Much like Nixon, Trump has violated the Constitution repeatedly. It is time for Congress to take action – just as it has before in similar circumstances – to launch an impeachment investigation. We must act to preserve a just system that serves everyone, not just the powerful.

She concludes:

Together, President Trump’s actions are indicative of a president who has established a different standard of justice for himself—exactly the kind that we declared impermissible in Nixon’s articles of impeachment. He has done so at the expense of democracy. And he’s done so at his own peril.

The American people demanded justice during the Nixon Administration and we demand justice now.

Read the excerpt from Congresswoman Holztman’s book in Salon here.


New ground for impeachment hearings: Trump’s hush money payments to influence the election

President Trump has been directly implicated—by his own personal lawyer—in a criminal conspiracy to illegally influence the election. This justifies an impeachment investigation.

FACTS

On August 21, 2018, President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges. Two of those charges stem directly from criminal actions that Cohen says he took at the direction of then-candidate Trump in connection with Trump presidential campaign. 

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