More Than 3 Million Americans Joined The Effort To Have Donald Trump Impeached In 2018
It was a difficult year for Donald Trump, and 2019 could be even worse.
Over the course of 2018, more than 3 million people signed onto an effort calling for Donald Trump to be impeached, Newsweek reports. The growth came through the Need to Impeach campaign, which calls on Congress to start the proceedings that would remove President Trump from office.
While there are a number of online petitions and viral efforts calling for Trump to be impeached, the Need to Impeach group aims to use its power to make a real push for Congress to act.
“We spent the last year raising up our supporters’ voices to ensure our elected leaders heard their messages loudly and clearly,” spokesman Erik Olvera told Newsweek. “And with Democrats controlling the House beginning next week, we’re not going to let up on our work.”
The campaign is the brainchild of Democratic donor Tom Steyer, who has emerged as one of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, and one of the foremost Democrats calling for impeachment. While Congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have been hesitant to address impeachment efforts — and have squashed some of the fringe members of the caucus who have attempted to bring impeachment proceedings on their own — Steyer has been on the forefront calling for Trump to be impeached.
The organization has pushed to get more signatures and now stands at 6.5 million people in total who have signed on. The push for signatures often coincides with more developments in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Olvera said, with the number jumping significantly as the investigation continues to move in on Trump’s inner circle.
There could be more room for the campaign to grow. A new poll from Harvard CAPS/Harris found that 60 percent of Americans are in favor of impeaching or censuring Trump. As The Hill reported, many of those are in favor of impeachment.
“Asked whether Trump should be impeached and removed from office for his actions, censured by Congress or whether Congress should take no action, 39 percent of respondents said Trump should be impeached and removed from office,” the report noted.
The impeachment of Donald Trump now seems inevitable, writes Elizabeth Drew. Even Republicans are deciding that he has become too great a burden to the party or too great a danger to the country. https://t.co/YzjNuPeF5L
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 27, 2018
While Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives next week and will have the power to impeach Donald Trump, an actual conviction remains a long shot. They would still need a significant number of Republicans to join the effort to reach the two-thirds threshold needed in the Senate to follow through on impeachment proceedings, which has played a role in the hesitance from Democratic Congressional leaders.
