WASHINGTON — Wearing an America flag tie, a Texas Democrat today introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump “on behalf of the many who have concluded that enough is enough.”
Rep. Al Green said on the House floor that the president incites “hate, bigotry, and insidious discrimination” while introducing the articles that charge Trump “is fueling an alt-right hate machine.”
“I’m not doing it on behalf of Republicans, generally speaking, or Democrats, generally speaking,” he said. “The people that I reference are Americans.”
Green proceeded with his “intent to raise a question of privilege of the House… resolved that Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America, has undermined the integrity of his office with impunity and has brought disrepute on the presidency with immunity, has betrayed trust as president to the manifest injury of the American people, and is unfit to be president.”
The congressman accused the president of acting inappropriately under the “inane pretext of dispensing political correctness” to incite “white supremacy, sexism, bigotry, hated, xenophobia, race-baiting and racism by demeaning, defaming, disrespecting, and disparaging women and certain minorities.”
“In so doing, Donald John Trump, president of the United States of America, has fueled and is fueling an alt-right hate machine and its worldwide covert sympathizers, engendering racial antipathy, LGBTQ enmity, religious anxiety, stealthy sexism and dreadful xenophobia perfidiously causing immediate injury to American society,” Green said.
As evidence, the Texas Dem referred to Trump calling NFL players who protest racism “son of a bitch” and tweeting that Puerto Ricans “want everything done for them”; he noted that Trump didn’t make similar statements about hurricane victims in Texas or Florida. Green said Trump “disrespected” Islam through his travel ban targeting a handful of Muslim-majority countries, and showed bigotry by announcing transgender service members would no longer be welcome in the military.
Green stopped short of filing a privileged motion, which under House rules regardless of party leadership would have forced a vote within a few days, telling Politico the situation is “very dynamic” but should eventually come up for a vote after fellow Dems have had time to review the text.
In a statement submitted for the congressional record, Green declared, “I love my country, I salute my flag. I say the Pledge of Allegiance and I believe in liberty and justice for all as declared in the pledge. I also believe that to acquire liberty and justice for all, some must stand alone.” Few Democrats have publicly supported attempting to impeach Trump at this point — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she does not support it — and Dem leaders reportedly urged Green to back off.
“I do so knowing that the public has been led to believe that a president must commit a crime to be impeached, which is not true. If any president persisted with the lie that ‘Hitler was right,’ he would be, and should be, impeached not for a crime, but for betraying his trust as president,” his statement continued. “I do so knowing that many, of my contemporaries will criticize my actions. Some will castigate me, others may desire to do something more dastardly with hopes of suppressing all embers of courage that might inflame others to speak truth to power or the powerful.”
“Ultimately, to again quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I will do that which is ‘neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.’ I will do that which is right and let others do what they may and allow history to judge us all.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member