Michigan Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib claimed that popular outcry has driven her to introduce legislation against the president immediately.
“We saw record turnout in an election year, where people wanted to elect a jury that would begin the impeachment proceedings to Donald Trump,” Tlaib said at a press briefing held in her office foyer.
“We want to work on these economic justice issues, racial justice issues,and everything,” she said. “But guess what? There is a wall there, and a constitutional crisis that is not going to [let us] do our jobs as American Congress members to push a lot of these agendas forward.”
Rashida “impeach the motherf**ker” Tlaib joins prominent Democrats like California’s Rep. Brad Sherman, and Rep. Al Green of Texas, in open attempts to push Trump out of the Oval Office. Both of the aforementioned congressmen have introduced impeachment articles of their own, though neither have made any real progress.
Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen made a similar attempt in the past, but has not reintroduced his articles to the now Democrat-led Congress. Even so, he recently told the The New York Times that impeachment “is almost going to be impossible not to deal with.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been very open about resisting efforts to impeach the President unless there is hard evidence to back it up. There is concern that the appearance of Democrats having prematurely reached a verdict would backfire in future elections. “When the facts are known, then we can make a judgment,” Pelosi said last week.
Tlaib is unmoved by such warnings. “This is the largest class since Watergate,” Tlaib said, referencing the newly-elected Democrats. “This is a class — a diverse class — that comes … with a sense of urgency to act. To act to hold corporations accountable, to act in holding President Trump accountable, to act to really try to see real reforms, even within our congressional process.”
“This is an emergency for many of us,” she said. Meanwhile, Tlaib is dealing with a minor emergency of her own: Allegations that she paid herself almost $20,000 from campaign funds — after the election was over.