Donald Trump Will Face An Impeachment Vote As Early As Next Week, Says Texas Representative Al Green
Texas Democrat Al Green plans to force a vote to impeach Donald Trump in the House of Representatives as early as next week, Yahoo News reports. It would be the third time Trump has faced an impeachment vote, with the previous two efforts — also led by Green — having failed.
Though the word “impeachment” has been used multiple times throughout Trump’s presidency, all efforts to impeach him have gone nowhere. Green’s first two efforts failed to get a majority vote required to impeach the president and then send him to a trial in the Senate. Although talk of impeaching Trump has increased since the publication of the Mueller report, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said that impeachment needs to be off the table for now. And, backing up her words with actions, she has refused to schedule any votes on impeachment.
Green says that the time is right for a third vote on impeachment, and he will force a vote over the objections of Pelosi if he has to. He says the vote can come as early as next week.
The impetus for the third vote to impeach, says Green, is Trump’s tweets over the weekend, in which he told four Democrat Congresswomen — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — to go back to their “broken and crime-infested countries.” Omar was born in Somalia, while the other three were all born in the United States.
NEW: Pro-impeachment Dems wary of Al Green forcing floor vote https://t.co/b21fCGvvH0 pic.twitter.com/OFckbqNxSn
— The Hill (@thehill) July 16, 2019
Green did not mince words in stating that these tweets mean that Trump needs to be impeached and removed from office.
“The President of the United States is a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, as well as an invidious prevaricator. To say that Donald John Trump is unfit for the Office of the President of the United States is an understatement,” he said.
Whether or not the House will vote to impeach Trump remains to be seen. Democrats control the House of Representatives, and all it takes for the U.S. president to be impeached is a simple majority vote. As The Hill reports, a total of 84 Democratic members of the House, plus Independent Justin Amash, have publicly supported impeaching Trump.
Even if the House does vote to impeach Trump, he would have to face a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate before he would be removed from office — a vote that requires a two-thirds majority.
