And it looks like, far from being just another futile effort or permanently putting paid to impeachment efforts, Green's vote has fired up the pro-impeachment wing and demonstrated its strength:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-colu ... just-begun
n Wednesday afternoon, Representative Al Green, who since 2005 has represented Texas’s Ninth Congressional District, stood on the floor of the House of Representatives and read from a resolution to impeach Donald Trump. “Donald John Trump is unfit to be President,” Green said. “Unfit to represent the American values of decency and morality, respectability and civility, honesty and propriety . . . unfit to insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, and to insure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, as lauded in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution.”
To make his case, Green, who was also responsible for previous efforts to impeach Trump, pointed to Trump’s long history of trying to sow racial divisions, including his inflammatory tweets over the weekend about four Democratic members of Congress who are all women of color. The damage that Trump has inflicted on the United States was so grave, Green concluded, that it warrants “impeachment, trial, and removal from office.”
Later in the day, the House voted, three hundred and thirty-two votes to ninety-five, to “table”—i.e., sideline—Green’s resolution. When Trump arrived in Greenville, North Carolina, on Wednesday evening, for a campaign rally, he hailed the vote, saying, “We’ve just received an overwhelming vote against impeachment, and that’s the end of it.”
Actually, that was more of Trump’s wishful thinking. Far from marking a finish to anything, the seemingly lopsided vote demonstrated that the movement to impeach Trump is steadily gaining support in the Democratic caucus. For now, a majority of Democratic representatives, including the Party’s leadership, don’t believe that the time is right to launch impeachment proceedings. But the efforts to impeach Trump are far from over.
When interpreting Wednesday’s vote tally, it is important to keep a number of things in mind. First, this wasn’t an up-down vote on whether Trump should be impeached. It was a vote on a motion to set aside Green’s motion, which cited Trump’s racist tweets over the weekend, and which otherwise would have gone to a floor vote. In effect, the motion represented an agreement not to decide the impeachment question right now, which is the strategy that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the Democratic leadership have settled on. Even so, ninety-five Democrats, out of a total of two hundred and thirty-five, voted against the motion—signalling that they favored an immediate start to some sort of impeachment proceeding or inquiry.
That figure represents substantial movement. In December, 2017, when the House voted to table Green’s first impeachment motion, which cited Trump’s comments about there being “very fine people” on both sides of the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, just fifty-eight Democrats voted to keep it alive. In January, 2018, when Green tried again, sixty-six Democrats sided with him.
The ninety-five votes that were cast on Wednesday in support of Green’s most recent resolution represented about forty per cent of all Democratic representatives. Another way to look at it is that the forces demanding a rapid move to impeachment fell just twenty-three votes short of achieving majority status in the Democratic caucus. (To get there, they would need a hundred and eighteen votes.)
Moreover, it’s clear that the level of support for Green’s resolution understated the support for impeachment. Among the Democrats who voted to table Green’s motion were a number of prominent impeachment supporters who, following Tuesday’s unanimous vote by House Democrats to condemn Trump’s racist comments, didn’t think this was the most opportune moment to move ahead. “We’re trying to keep the caucus together as we respond to the most lawless administration of our lifetimes,” Representative Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, told the Washington Post. “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.”
It’s also worth looking at who among the Democrats voted nay on Wednesday. Not so long ago, support for moving rapidly to impeachment was a position adopted, mainly, by those on the left of the Party. Now it has gone mainstream. An article at The Hill noted that a number of powerful committee chairs broke with the Party leadership. They included Nita Lowey (Appropriations), Bennie Thompson (Energy and Commerce), Raúl Grijalva (Homeland Security), Jerry Nadler (Judiciary), Jim McGovern (Rules), and Nydia Velázquez (Small Business).
What explained the votes of such Party stalwarts? Certainly, they are disgusted by Trump. In many districts, they are also facing intense pressure from constituents and activists. As Thompson said on Wednesday, “My district wants me to vote for the immediate impeachment of Donald Trump.”
To be sure, Thompson represents a deep blue area of western Mississippi. It is sometimes said that Democrats, when facing competitive races in 2020, will never support impeaching Trump, but that isn’t necessarily true. Citing her responsibility to uphold the law, Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, who represents Arizona’s Second District, said, “I’ve come to the conclusion that the House of Representatives must open an impeachment inquiry.” Kirkpatrick was following the example of several other Democrats in competitive districts, including Tom Malinowski, of New Jersey, and Katie Porter, of California.
On this occasion, Pelosi and her leadership colleagues were able to hold the line, but things are still moving. On Thursday, Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic Presidential candidates reiterated their support for opening an impeachment inquiry. Next week, Robert Mueller will deliver his long-awaited testimony on Capitol Hill. If the former special counsel spells out, in plain English, what the second volume of his report says in legalese—his investigators uncovered numerous instances of Trump trying to obstruct justice, and it is Congress’s responsibility to take up the matter—the calls for impeachment will grow even louder.
A previous version of this post misstated the location of Trump's rally.
Not only did the support for Green's resolution not represent the ceiling of support for impeachment (as noted above, some Reps who support impeachment voted to table this measure, believing it wasn't the right way to do it), it also pushed about two dozen Dems who had previously not declared their support for impeachment to do so:
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/ ... si-1422347
Public support among House Democrats for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump is growing despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s attempts to halt the effort.
More than two dozen Democrats who hadn’t previously taken a position voted Wednesday to advance a measure to impeach the president over his racist attack on their colleagues. Before Wednesday, about 85 Democrats had publicly called for an impeachment inquiry — over one third of the 235-member House Democratic caucus.
The new outpouring comes before next week’s Capitol Hill testimony by former special counsel Robert Mueller, which is expected to inspire many more lawmakers to join them. Pelosi’s resistance to impeachment, while firm, could be undercut if enough Democrats sign on publicly to remove the president.
If all 27 of the Democratic lawmakers who for the first time sided with Green were to publicly seek an impeachment inquiry, it would put nearly half of House Democrats in that camp.
One of them, Rep. Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey, said he supports an impeachment inquiry but hadn’t confirmed it publicly until now because he hadn’t been asked. Doris Matsui of California also supports an inquiry. Another, Rep. Karen Bass of California, chair of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, would support opening an impeachment inquiry against Trump if it comes up for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee, an aide said.
And Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard’s office confirmed that the California Democrat supports an “impeachment inquiry to determine whether or not there are legal grounds for impeachment.”
But the situation is complex. POLITICO reached out to all 27 lawmakers who voted Wednesday to advance Al Green's narrowly tailored articles of impeachment. In interviews or statements from their offices, several revealed they were ready to publicly call for Trump’s ouster or for impeachment proceedings to begin. But others said they joined Green only for technical legislative reasons that had little to do with seeking Trump’s immediate impeachment.
The camp of outright impeachment supporters now includes Reps. Peter Welch of Vermont and Rick Larsen of Washington. Larsen, said he became motivated to support impeachment after Trump’s comments urging four minority congresswomen to “go back” to their home countries — including three who were born in the United States
“I do not come to this decision lightly,” Larsen said in a statement. “His comments do not protect the concept of U.S. citizenship. They undermine it. He should not be the President of the United States.”
Others took a more nuanced view. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he voted with Green because he personally believes Trump has committed offenses worthy of impeachment — but added he’s hesitant to formally seek an inquiry that would be doomed in the Senate.
“Personally, I think he has obstructed justice and has done all these things that would qualify for impeachment. That’s why I vote the way I did,” Pallone said. “Because the Senate will never take up an impeachment, it’s not something I think we should spend our time on.”
Similarly, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel of New York said he voted with Green simply to keep open the option of impeachment, even though he’s not ready to embrace an impeachment inquiry.
Despite the new groundswell of support, a slew of others who sided with Green said they did so over a procedural technicality: that the measure should have been referred to the Judiciary Committee instead of summarily blocked.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York cited this procedural dispute as the reason he sided with Green, as did the No. 2 Democrat on his committee, Zoe Lofgren of California and a freshman member of the panel, Sylvia Garcia of Texas. Reps. Mike Thompson of California, Dina Titus of Nevada, Anthony Brown of Maryland and Grace Meng of New York, who aren’t members of the committee, also said they voted with Green because they backed Nadler’s position.
“I will support an impeachment inquiry when it becomes necessary in order to get the truth for my constituents,” Meng said in a statement.
Meng noted, though, that she’ll carefully eye Mueller’s testimony next week as she weighs her decision. So did Lori Trahan of Massachusetts.
“Her vote makes clear that Congress stands ready to hold the president accountable and will not hesitate to assert its authority. She looks forward to special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony next week,” a Trahan spokesman said.
One notable vote with Green was Rep. Mike Levin, a freshman California Democrat from a swing district who hadn’t taken a definitive stand on whether to support an impeachment inquiry. In a statement, Levin said he joined Green for the same technical reason as Nadler but noted he’s looking ahead to Mueller’s testimony next week.
“I will support an impeachment inquiry when it becomes necessary in order to get the truth for my constituents,” Levin said.
Other Democrats who voted with Green cited philosophical reasons — but not the desire necessarily to pursue Trump’s impeachment.
“What is this country coming to?” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.). “I’m not ready for impeachment, but I’m just disgusted by the rhetoric in this country.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida said she’s “torn” about what to do but has worried that a failed attempt at impeaching Trump could play into his hands.
California lawmakers Jimmy Gomez and Jerry McNerney said they’d support an impeachment debate on the House floor.
At least eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus who hadn’t previously sought Trump’s impeachment voted to advance Green’s articles of impeachment. But several of them told POLITICO they were making a broader statement about Trump’s racist comments rather than aligning with the impeachment effort.
“I think it represents a larger more important conversation that we need to have about ... what we’re willing to tolerate as a citizenry from our commander in chief,” said Andre Carson (D-Ind.). “What responsibility the commander in chief has to the electorate in terms of not fanning the flames of Islamophobia, xenophobia and outright hatred.”
Four of the 27 Democrats who voted with Green — Reps. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, Nita Lowey of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and David Scott of Georgia — did not respond to requests for comment. A sixth, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, declined to comment.
Notably, more than a dozen lawmakers who already favor an impeachment inquiry voted to sideline Green’s articles of impeachment. Several argued that Green’s focus on Trump’s racism excluded other evidence of potentially impeachable offenses like obstruction of justice.
“We’re not going to take someone and say, ‘Well let’s charge him with manslaughter when he committed mass murder,’’” said Rep. Val Demings of Florida.
Andrew Desiderio contributed to this report.
If we combine those who supported Green's motion, and those who have previously backed impeachment (or at least an inquiry) but voted to table this measure, we are at well over a hundred Democrats, in fact very nearly half the Democratic caucus, who have now publicly backed impeachment.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver
"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.
I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
