Growing number of House Democrats seeking action vs Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Democrats are calling – and more loudly – for impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump after his latest defiance of Congress by blocking his former White House lawyer from testifying.
A growing number of rankand-file House Democrats, incensed by former counsel Don McGahn’s empty chair in the Judiciary Committee hearing room on Tuesday, are confronting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and pushing her and other leaders to act. Their impatience is running up against the speaker’s preference for a more methodical approach, including already-unfolding court battles.
Pelosi summoned some of them – still a small fraction of the House Democratic caucus – to a meeting of investigators yesterday to assess strategy.
Some other Democratic leaders, while backing Pelosi, signaled that a march to impeachment may at some point become inevitable.
“We are confronting what might be the largest, broadest coverup in American history,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters. If a House inquiry “leads to other avenues, including impeachment,” the Maryland Democrat said, “so be it.”
Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas and Diana DeGette of Colorado added their voices to the impeachment inquiry chorus.
“There is political risk in doing so, but there’s a greater risk to our country in doing nothing,” Castro said on Twitter. “This is a fight for our democracy.”
DeGette tweeted: “The facts laid out in the Mueller report, coupled with this administration’s ongoing attempts to stonewall Congress, leave us no other choice.”
One Republican congressman, Justin Amash of Michigan, has called for impeachment proceedings. On Tuesday, he said he thinks other GOP lawmakers should join him, but only after reading special counsel Robert Mueller’s report carefully.