Pete Buttigieg Says Donald Trump Deserves To Be Impeached For Findings Of Mueller Report
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Friday called on Congress to impeach Donald Trump for the findings of the Mueller report, adding his name to a growing list of top Democrats saying the president should face impeachment for his actions.
As NBC News reported, Buttigieg spoke about the release of the Mueller report during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Friday, saying he was “pretty sure” that Trump deserved to be impeached for the actions laid out in the more than 400-page report. Buttigieg said Congress must now take action against Trump.
A number of other Democrats have already called for Trump’s impeachment after the release of the report, which outlined a series of contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia and also listed a number of actions taken by Trump himself to impede the investigation. The report stopped short of recommending charges for Trump, but left the final decision up to Congress on whether to take action. It has long been the Department of Justice policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted, and it is instead up to Congress to bring articles of impeachment against the president so they could be removed from office.
Other 2020 hopefuls have also called on Trump to be impeached. On Friday, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren also called for Trump’s impeachment, noting that the Mueller report directly called on Congress to decide whether he should face consequences.
“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,” Warren said, via The Guardian.
But other top Congressional Democrats have moved away from the idea of impeaching Donald Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose support would likely be needed before the Democratic caucus moved forward on any impeachment proceedings, has said repeatedly that she would only consider impeachment if the caucus had the support of Republicans as well.
Pete Buttigieg told NBC News that there's "evidence that this president deserves to be impeached." https://t.co/jv2y7u2R24
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 19, 2019
Others have already said that impeachment should be off the table. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Friday that impeachment was “not worthwhile” after the report’s release. As Business Insider reported, Hoyer said the American people would have the chance to decide on whether Donald Trump should remain in office when they vote in the next presidential election in 18 months.
