John Lewis Supports Donald Trump’s Impeachment, Nancy Pelosi Reportedly Not Far Behind
In an important step for Democrats hoping to impeach President Donald Trump, Rep. John Lewis on Tuesday has come out in favor of impeaching the president in a move that some say signals that the House is getting ready to open formal impeachment proceedings against the 45th president.
“The future of our democracy is at stake,” the Democrat from Georgia tweeted to his 1.1 million followers just before 1:30 on Tuesday. “I truly believe the time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president has come. To do otherwise would betray the foundations of our democracy.”
Lewis’ support for an impeachment inquiry comes following reports that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who notably has not been in favor of the president’s impeachment, said she would make an announcement regarding impeachment proceedings later this afternoon.
As The Inquisitr reported earlier Tuesday, a Washington Post reporter claimed Tuesday morning that sources told her Democrats were planning to begin impeachment proceedings against the president in what she described would be a “big day” on Capitol Hill, adding that Trump’s impeachment from office was “likely.”
The strengthened calls for his removal from office this week come following reports that a whistleblower reported that the president made an inappropriate promise on a call with a foreign leader. Subsequent news reports have said that the call was with the Ukrainian president on July 25 and that Trump asked some eight times for the country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
The president reportedly directed his administration to withhold some $400 million in aid from the country over his interest in investigating “corruption,” which he reportedly speculates that the former vice president – his political rival – was involved in. As The Inquisitr previously reported, the president seems to believe a theory that the former vice president intervened in the removal of a prosecutor in the country who was allegedly investigating his son, Hunter Biden.
Donald Trump's U.N. Speech Causes Critics To Speculate On His Mental State. #DonaldTrump #WhiteHouse https://t.co/89IdaJGxEB
— The Inquisitr (@theinquisitr) September 24, 2019
While the younger Biden did work in the oil industry in the Eastern European country, The Inquisitr reported that the prosecutor’s removal seemed to be part of a larger call to remove him from office following allegations that he was behind much of the reported corruption in the country, and was likely not part of a Biden conspiracy to protect his son from prosecution.
Trump eventually released aid to the nation in September.
Tuesday marks a monumental shift for Democrats, who have struggled to gain party-wide support for impeachment proceedings in the House. House Speaker Pelosi has notably been against the proceedings, believing they would be too divisive. More progressive members of the Democratic Party have been calling for Trump’s impeachment for months, though the whistleblower allegations against Trump, leveraged against him late last week, seem to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for more moderate party members who were holding out.
When asked about impeachment by NBC News, the House Speaker, a Democrat from California, told the news outlet that she planned to make an announcement on the topic later Tuesday.
BREAKING: Speaker Pelosi tells @AlexNBCNews when asked about impeachment: "Later today I will make an announcement after I meet with my chairmen, my leadership and my caucus.”
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 24, 2019
The Washington Post reported Tuesday afternoon that former Vice President Joe Biden, who is in a heated race for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination against other frontrunners — Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris — is expected to formally announce his support for beginning impeachment proceedings against the president later today.
In an earlier statement, Biden had called for a transcript of the call with the Ukrainian president to be released. However, Obama’s former second-in-command notably stopped short of expressing support for impeachment.
