Rep. Al Green (D-TX), one of Congress’s most ardent supporters of impeachment, called for examples of President Donald Trump’s “racism” to be included in the House Democrats’ forthcoming articles aimed at removing the president, according to the Hill.
In a letter to colleagues, Green, a Congressional Black Caucus member, urged that the inclusion of Trump’s “impeachable racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, transphobic, xenophobic language instigating enmity and inciting violence within our society” should be considered for articles of impeachment.
The Texas Democrat cited the House Democrats’ passage of a measure condemning the president for challenging freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to leave the United States if their critical remarks of the country persisted.
“Why should we pass a resolution condemning the president’s racist comments and then get back to racism as usual, where racism is more of a talking point than an action item?” Green wrote.
Previously, Green introduced procedural votes on his own articles to oust Trump three times, dating back to 2017. Those attempts were voted down by members.
Ahead of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing, Green ripped panel chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) for failing to include witnesses with diversity for his lineup. Stanford Law School’s Pamela Karlan, Harvard Law School’s Noah Feldman, Michael Gerhardt of University of North Carolina Law School, and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School — all of whom are white — have testified Wednesday as part of the committee’s impeachment hearing.
“It hurts my heart, Mr. Speaker, to see the Judiciary Committee hearing experts on the topic of impeachment, one of the seminal issues of this Congress. Hearing experts, Mr. Speaker, and not one person of color among the experts,” he fumed during a floor speech. “What subliminal message are we sending to the world when we have experts but not one person of color? Are we saying that there are no people of color who are experts on this topic of impeachment?”
Green’s letter comes after the congressman equated voting to impeach the president with supporting the civil rights movements prompted by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.
“I would like for it to be bipartisan, to be very candid with you, but there are times when you have to do that which you believe to be principally right, when moral imperatives trumps political expediency. And you do this because Dr. King was right. He said, the time is always right to do that which is right,” Green told Fox News Channel’s Your World. “This is the time. We can’t wait on polls. Dr. King didn’t march on Washington because of polls. Rosa Parks didn’t take a seat on the bus because of polls. John Lewis didn’t cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge because of polls. We have to do things because it is right even when it is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.”