New Articles Of Impeachment Against POTUS Coming As 40 Percent Now Support Removal From Office, Poll Says
About a month after two Democratic members of Congress introduced articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, a third Democrat has now announced that he will introduce a new set of impeachment articles, as a consequence of Trump’s widely condemned response to the outbreak of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.
As counter-protesters clashed with white supremacists and neo-Nazis who were in the city ostensibly to protest the removal of a statue depicting Confederate General Robert E. Lee, one of the counter-protesters, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed as were two police officers and 33 more people were injured in the violence — which included a white supremacist plowing a car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
But Trump gave two statements in which he blamed “both sides” for the violence, and in his initial statement on Saturday as the violence continued to play out, Trump reportedly refused to single out the neo-Nazis and white supremacists for specific condemnation. In a press conference on Tuesday, Trump repeated his “both sides” claim, adding that there were “very fine people” among both the ultra-right wing demonstrators and the counter-protesters, whom Trump labeled “the alt-left.”
Tennessee Representative Steve Cohen, 68, announced on Thursday that he would now introduce articles of impeachment against Trump because, with his refusal to categorically condemn the white supremacists and insistence on holding counter-protesters equally responsible for the violence, Trump had “failed the test of moral leadership.”
“Not only has (Trump) potentially obstructed justice and potentially violated the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause,” Cohen said in a statement, “but he has also shown that he is incapable or unwilling to protect Americans from enemies, foreign and domestic. Neo-Nazis and the KKK are domestic terrorists. It is morally and legally incumbent upon me, based on my oath of office, to introduce articles of impeachment.”
On July 12, Democrats Brad Sherman of California and Al Green of Texas introduced their own articles of impeachment against Trump. Sherman and Green focused on an “obstruction of justice” accusation against Trump as the basis to impeach him. The charge stems from Trump’s May 9 firing of then FBI Director James Comey, who according to Trump’s own statements was dismissed in order to relieve “pressure” on Trump from the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia — and possible collusion with Russia as Russian intelligence services staged cyber-attacks against Democrats in the 2016 presidential election.
Watch Cohen discuss his proposed articles of impeachment in the following video.
According to a poll released on Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute, 40 percent of Americans now favor impeaching Trump — a jump of 10 percent since February, shortly after Trump took office.
However, only 7 percent of Republicans favor impeachment, according to the poll, as opposed to a whopping 72 percent of Democrats. Among Americans who label themselves “independents,” 38 percent now support the impeachment of Donald Trump. But all three blocs showed an increase in those supporting impeachment since the February survey. Even among Republicans, support for impeachment jumped three points, while Democrats were at 58 percent in favor back in February.
After comments on #Charlottesville, I’ll be introducing Articles of #Impeachment against #Trump. No good Nazis or Klansmen! #ImpeachTrump pic.twitter.com/x6pWL35evL
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) August 17, 2017
Cohen is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, making him the highest ranking Democrat so far to openly call for Trump’s impeachment.
“As a Jew and as an American and as a representative of an African American district, I am revolted by the fact that the President of the United States couldn’t stand up and unequivocally condemn Nazis who want to kill Jews and whose predecessors murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, and could not unequivocally condemn Klansmen whose organization is dedicated to terrorizing African Americans,” Cohen said on Thursday.
[Featured Image By Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
