Failed Democrat Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum is reiterating his support for impeachment following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
In a terse tweet Friday morning, Gillum wrote: “Impeach @realDonaldTrump. Defeat @realDonaldTrump.”
The former Tallahassee mayor called for President Trump’s removal from office in a July 2017 Facebook video released ahead of the president’s visit to the Florida Panhandle.
“Donald Trump should be impeached now,” Gillum declared in the video, accusing the president of “obstruction of justice” in relieving FBI Director James Comey of his duties amid the bureau’s counter-intelligence probe into the Trump campaign. “The President said he knew that his National Security Adviser lied to the FBI, so he ordered the FBI director to drop the investigation and then he fired him after he refused to do so. This is an alarming and clear-cut case of obstruction of justice.”
Gillum is the latest progressive darling to break with establishment Democrats in calling for the president’s removal from office — despite being cleared of criminal conspiracy with the Russian government.
On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced her support for fellow freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) resolution demanding the House Judiciary Committee investigate whether President Trump committed impeachable offenses.
“Mueller’s report is clear in pointing to Congress’ responsibility in investigating obstruction of justice by the President,” tweeted Ocasio-Cortez. “It is our job as outlined in Article 1, Sec 2, Clause 5 of the US Constitution,” added the self-avowed Democratic Socialist. “As such, I’ll be signing onto @RashidaTlaib’s impeachment resolution.”
The New York Democrat continued: “While I understand the political reality of the Senate + election considerations, upon reading this DoJ report, which explicitly names Congress in determining obstruction, I cannot see a reason for us to abdicate from our constitutionally mandated responsibility to investigate.”
Attorney General William Barr on Thursday released a redacted version of the special counsel’s report, specifying there existed insufficient evidence of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. The president’s exoneration prompted top Democrats such as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to further pour cold water on impeachment. “Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point. Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment,” Hoyer told CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. However, Hoyer appears to have backpedaled on his remarks following calls for him to face a primary challenger, tweeting later Thursday evening: “[T]he American people have all the info they need to know the truth & all options ought to remain on the table to achieve that objective.”
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