Democrat Rep. Al Green (D-TX) filed articles of impeachment against President Trump Tuesday, right after the House passed a resolution to condemn what Democrats say were Trump’s “racist” remarks against far-left members of Congress.
Green’s move could effectively force a vote on the measure this week, according to reports. The Texas lawmaker hopes to capitalize on the political fallout from Trump’s recent tweets, urging ultra-leftist members of Congress who frequently criticize the U.S. “to go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” and “come back and show us how it is done.”:
“To condemn a racist President is not enough, we must impeach him,” Green said, according to NBC News. “This will be a defining vote.”
“What do you do when the leader of the free world is a racist? What do you do? Well, here’s what you do. You file a resolution condemning the president for racist comments directed at members of Congress,” Green reportedly said on the House floor.
He continued:
What do you do? You file articles of impeachment impeaching the President of the United States of America. These two things are not mutually exclusive. We can do this, condemn for the comments that have been made. And we can do this, impeach for the harm that the comments are causing to the society.
According to the articles of impeachment, Trump is “unfit to defend the ideals that have made America great.”
Green also released a statement Monday, detailing his position further:
The President of the United States is a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, as well as an invidious prevaricator. To say that Donald John Trump is unfit for the Office of the President of the United States is an understatement. He is unfit for public office, and if he displayed any of these behaviors in most private companies, he would be summarily terminated with haste.
I was not told to speak out on the bigotry emanating from the White House. I was compelled to speak out. I believe there is a moral imperative to look racism, bigotry, misogyny, and hate in the face and rebuke it; to convey to our children that this type of behavior is unacceptable and that these beliefs are not welcome in the United States of America.
This could amount to a nightmare for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has repeatedly stiff-armed attempts to impeach the president, purportedly out of fear that it could jeopardize the Democrats’ chances of retaining the House in 2020.
While she has softened her tone, telling CNN’s Manu Raju in June that impeachment is “not off the table,” she has not acted beyond the rhetoric. In May, Pelosi said that Trump was “goading” Democrats to impeach him.
According to the Hill’s Whip List, 84 Democrats support impeachment.
This is Green’s third time forcing action on impeaching the president.