Pelosi joins Dems in call for censure
RAP MOGUL’S OPEN LETTER TO PREZ
HOUSE MINORITY Leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday joined a growing chorus of Democrats seeking to censure President Trump over his response to last weekend’s violent white nationalist rally in Virginia.
The California lawmaker (photo) and 78 of her colleagues, all Democrats, are behind an official rebuke of the President’s “repulsive defense of white supremacists.”
“Democrats will use every avenue to challenge the repulsiveness of President Trump’s words and actions,” Pelosi said.
The public reprimand is largely symbolic and carries no legal ramifications.
But Democrats feel the need to officially mark their opposition to Trump’s comments.
On Saturday, Trump issued a tepid statement condemning “many sides” for the violence, which included the death of anti-racist counter-protester Heather Heyer, who was run over by a neo-Nazi.
Following intense backlash over his initial refusal to name and condemn the hate groups involved, the President defiantly insisted there were “very fine people” marching alongside the neo-Nazis and Klansmen.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), along with Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, began to beat the drum for an official condemnation of Trump’s comments earlier in the week.
The resolution, which is unlikely to pass the Republicanheld legislature, was formally introduced on Friday.
Pelosi called on members of the House from the other side of the aisle to take a stand.
“Every day, the President gives us further evidence of why such a censure is necessary,” she said. “Indeed, with each passing day, it becomes clearer that the Republican Congress must declare whether it stands for our sacred American values or with the President who embraces white nationalism.”