One of the more than 80 members of the House of Representatives who’ve called for impeaching President Trump tried to get the impeachment ball rolling Tuesday night.
Rep. Al Green (D-TX) filed articles of impeachment, despite the reluctance of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and others party leaders.
“Donald John Trump has, by his statements, brought the high office of the President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute,” Green read from his resolution on the House floor Tuesday night.
He added that Trump “has sown discord among the people of the United States, has demonstrated that he is unfit to be President, and has betrayed his trust as President of the United States to the manifest injury of the people of the United States, and has committed a high misdemeanor in office.”
Earlier, Green told the Washington Post he was motivated to take action on impeachment by Trump’s insulting suggestion that four Democratic Congresswomen “go back” to the countries they came from, even though all four are U.S. citizens and three were born here.
“To tolerate bigotry — racism in this case — is to perpetuate it. We should not perpetuate this kind of behavior coming from the president, and if we don’t check him, he will continue,” Green said.
“Under House rules, Democratic leaders can decide to try to table the impeachment articles, effectively killing them for now; refer them to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration; or allow the vote to proceed as is,” the Post says, adding that “If leaders do nothing, Green can force a vote on the impeachment articles in two legislative days.”
Pelosi has suggested that impeaching Trump while Republicans retain their grip on the Senate could be counter-productive, since there’s virtually no chance the president would be convicted and thrown out of office.
“Impeachment proponents seemed divided on the idea of forcing a vote on impeachment now,” the Post says. “Some … said they would support an immediate move to impeach the president. Others, like Rep. Jamie Raskin, a strong impeachment backer, hesitated,” worried about the possibility that an impeachment vote might fail.
“We’re trying to keep the caucus together as we respond to the most lawless administration of our lifetimes,” Raskin said. “I’m enough of a political pragmatist to believe that you call votes when you think you can win them, not when you think you can lose them.”
The House has 435 seats, 235 of which are currently held by Democrats.