Impeachment activist Tom Steyer vowed on Thursday evening in New Hampshire to hold Democrats running for president “accountable” on impeachment, putting even more pressure on potential 2020 contenders to become more extreme on anything related to President Donald Trump.
Steyer, who again compared his impeachment movement to the civil rights and voting rights movements of the 1960s, predicted to WMUR that “the events will show that this is the most corrupt and criminal president in American history.”
“We are certainly going to hold presidential candidates accountable on the point about impeachment, for starters,” Steyer told the outlet during his visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state. “It seems to me that if you want to be president of the United States, and you feel it’s too politically risky to deal with the biggest threat to America in a generation, and you feel you want to duck that question, then I don’t feel you should be president,” Steyer said.
Steyer decided not to run for president himself because he wanted to “finish the job” on impeachment. According to WMUR, Steyer has spent “$50 million of his own money on the effort, including a steady stream of television ads, and reportedly plans to spend $40 million more.”
“I felt as if working full-time to try and organize the voice of Americans and get a grassroots movement across the country to push for impeachment and removal of this president was the thing that would have the most beneficial impact on the country that I could think of,” Steyer said in the Granite State. “We started ‘Need to Impeach’ 14 months ago, and I really want to finish the job. We’re right in the middle of it. It’s incredibly important. He’s the biggest threat to America in a generation.”
Democrats who are not able to raise boatloads of money or who many not be household names could seek Steyer’s endorsement to get access to his coveted e-mail and voter lists.
Steyer also indicated that he will hold newly-elected Democrats in Congress accountable on impeachment, saying that “it is important that when people get elected, they’re accountable to the people who elected them.”
“We’re going to try to make sure that they’re aware of how the people in their districts really feel,” he added. “And we know that overwhelming numbers of their constituents, and certainly dramatically overwhelming numbers of the people who voted for them, really believe strongly that this president should not only be impeached and removed but as soon as possible.”