Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says Donald Trump’s Call About Georgia Election Results Is An ‘Impeachable Offense’
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she believes Donald Trump should be impeached again after the release of an audio recording of him pressuring Georgia state officials into finding the votes necessary to overturn his loss in the state.
On Sunday, The Washington Post released a full audio recording of the discussion between Trump, other senior White House members and the Republican leaders in Georgia who had already certified Joe Biden’s win in the state. The tape revealed Trump aggressively pressuring them to change the outcome, with the Georgia officials pushing back against his unfounded claims of massive voting fraud.
The release has led to a massive backlash for Trump, with some saying that he could face criminal charges for the attempts to pressure officials into interfering in the race. And one prominent member of Congress believes he should face new charges.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that if it were up to her, Trump would be facing new articles of impeachment for the conduct.
“I absolutely think it’s an impeachable offense, and if it was up to me, there would be articles on the floor quite quickly, but he, I mean, he is trying to — he is attacking our very election. He’s attacking our very election,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters at the start of the new session of Congress, via The Hill.
Ocasio-Cortez was vocally opposed to Trump during the first impeachment process, when he was ultimately charged on two counts of pressuring the president of Ukraine to dig up dirt on political rival Biden, before the former vice president would go on to win the Democratic nomination. She voted against the president on both counts, though Trump would ultimately be acquitted early last year by the U.S. Senate.
Other top Democrats stopped short of calling for him to be impeached. Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the last inquiry as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not directly advocate for new charges but did speak out strongly against the actions heard on the audio recording.
“I think it is among the most despicable abuses of power of his long list, possibly criminal, morally repugnant, virulently anti-democratic and dangerous to our democracy,” he told reporters, via The Hill.
Schiff added that he would need to think more about whether it was a potentially criminal matter that could warrant him to be impeached again.
In his closing argument during the impeachment trial early last year, Schiff warned that if Trump were to get away with his actions toward Ukraine, he would only take more steps to compromise American elections.
