U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren asked on Twitter this Friday that legislators begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar joined the request.
Warren wrote a series of tweets after a report from special prosecutor Bob Mueller was released, albeit with deletions by the Department of Justice. The more than 400-page-long text details among other things the different efforts Trump made to interfere with an investigation on Russia. Eleven in total, according to his critics.
Mueller put the next step in the hands of Congress: “Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.” The correct process for exercising that authority is impeachment.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019
The senator also sent her followers an email that textually says the following:
“The Mueller report lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump and Donald Trump welcomed that help. Once elected, Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into that attack.
“Mueller put the next step in the hands of Congress: ‘Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.’ The correct process for exercising that authority is impeachment.
“To ignore a President’s repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways.
“The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.
“I want to make sure my position is known.”
The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019
Two women from the House of Representatives shared Warren’s point of view. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez affirmed that Trump should be accused of obstruction of justice, and that she had previously not wanted to do so because she had been focused on other priorities. The president’s misconduct in the newly published report, she said, had forced her to change her mind.
She wrote that Mueller’s report is clear in pointing out the responsibility of Congress to investigate obstruction of justice by the president, and added that it’s their job, as described in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution.
She acknowledged, however, that that move could have problems with objections in the Senate.
She continued by saying that while she understands the political reality of the Senate and electoral considerations, when reading the report from the Department of Justice, which explicitly appoints Congress to determine the obstruction, she saw no reason for them to give up their constitutional responsibility to investigate.
She added that many people know she doesn’t like discussions about impeachment and she had not campaigned about it and she rarely discussed the matter spontaneously.
Ocasio-Cortez said she preferred to work on priorities: to give a boost to Medicare for everyone, student loans and a Green New Deal, but the report put the matter directly on her doorstep.
Representative Ilhan Omar was in favor of the same.
She wrote that impeachment is part of their constitutional responsibility and that they have the obligation to investigate whether the president committed offenses attributed to him, pointing to obstruction of justice, violating the Emoluments Clause, collusion and abuse of power as possible avenues of investigation.
The three congresswomen thus entered into disagreement with other Democratic colleagues, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who said last month that the accusation against Trump “would divide the country” and that “it was not worth it.”
