I’m not sure if this is brilliant or the opposite. On one hand, Pelosi can cite all her previous comments and the “hesitancy” to start impeachment. “We really didn’t want it to come to this, but he gave us no choice.”
ETA: (didn’t finish the thought)
On the other hand, I could see the criticism from the right that Pelosi was hesitant because there “wasn’t any there there” even though it would still be deflection.
Gotta Start Somewhere…
Via TheHill:
“Here’s a tally of which lawmakers have endorsed launching an impeachment inquiry of President Trump. This list will be updated.”
1. Don Beyer (Va.)
“For me, the final two straws were Don McGahn refusing to come forward after a perfectly reasonable request for him to appear and then [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin writing us back saying he’s not going to honor the subpoena on Trump’s tax returns when the law is crystal clear,” Beyer told The Hill.
2. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.)
Blumenauer signed on to Tlaib’s resolution.
3. Joaquin Castro (Texas)
“It’s time for Congress to open an impeachment inquiry. There is political risk in doing so, but there’s a greater risk to our country in doing nothing,” Castro tweeted. “This is a fight for our democracy.”
4. Steve Cohen (Tenn.)
Cohen introduced articles of impeachment in the last session of Congress that accused Trump of obstructing justice. “I think he’s committed impeachable offenses and he ought to be impeached,” Cohen said this week.
5. David Cicilline (R.I.)
Cicilline, a member of Democratic leadership and the Judiciary Committee, called for starting an impeachment inquiry if McGahn didn’t appear for the hearing.
“If Don McGahn does not testify tomorrow, it will be time to begin an impeachment inquiry of @realDonaldTrump,” Cicilline tweeted on the eve of McGahn’s absence from the Judiciary Committee hearing.
6. Madeleine Dean (Pa.)
Dean, a member of the Judiciary Committee, in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball” said she backed launching an impeachment inquiry.
7. Diana DeGette (Colo.)
“The facts laid out in the Mueller report, coupled with this administration’s ongoing attempts to stonewall Congress, leave us no other choice: It is time for Congress to officially launch an impeachment inquiry against the President of the United States,” DeGette tweeted.
8. Val Demings (Fla.)
Demings, a Judiciary Committee member, said last month after the Mueller report’s release that “I think we have enough” to move forward with impeachment. “I think we have great evidence that the president has blatantly violated so many laws. It’s just ridiculous,” Demings said during a Democratic caucus conference call.
9. Veronica Escobar (Texas)
“I personally feel like we cannot tolerate this level of obstruction, that if we do, then we have lowered the bar to the point where any criminal can be president of the United States and that should be unacceptable to all of us,” tweeted Escobar, a Judiciary Committee member. “I believe we need to begin an impeachment inquiry.”
10. Dwight Evans (Pa.)
“The heavily redacted #MuellerReport reveals and details repeated disturbing conduct by the president, & it shouldn’t go unnoticed – an impeachment vote would begin the process & allow House Judiciary to have broader investigative availability, which is certainly warranted!” Evans tweeted.
11. Al Green (Texas)
Green has been a vocal supporter of impeachment since 2017. He forced two House floor votes on impeachment in 2017 and 2018 while Republicans held the majority and has threatened to force a third.
12. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.)
Ocasio-Cortez signed on to Tlaib’s resolution after the Justice Department released a partially redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s election interference that laid out 10 instances of Trump potentially obstructing justice.
“It is just as politicized a maneuver to not impeach in the face of overwhelming evidence as it is to impeach w/o cause,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on May 21.
“Just as what happens in the House doesn’t control Senate, what happens in the Senate shouldn’t control the House,” she added.
13. Jared Huffman (Calif.)
“The Constitution created our impeachment authority for exactly this kind of circumstance. And it’s really damaging to the country and to our institutions if we punt on something like this,” Huffman told “PBS NewsHour” after the Mueller report became public. Huffman is also a co-sponsor of Tlaib’s resolution.
14. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.)
“We are now at the point where we must begin an impeachment inquiry. I don’t say that lightly. We’ve taken every step we can w/subpoenas and witnesses,” tweeted Jayapal, a Judiciary Committee member and Progressive Caucus leader.
15. Ted Lieu (Calif.)
Lieu echoed other fellow Judiciary Committee members in endorsing an inquiry. “This inquiry could lead to impeachment, or it could lead to nothing. But I think if McGahn doesn’t show, we have to at least start it,” Lieu told The Washington Post.
16. Seth Moulton (Mass.)
The presidential candidate backs an impeachment investigation.
“I’m not calling for a vote on impeachment today. We don’t have all the facts yet. But we should be getting those facts and making them transparent for the American people,” Moulton told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
17. Joseph Neguse (Colo.)
“The findings detailed in the Special Counsel’s report, and the Administration’s pattern of wholesale obstruction of Congress since the report’s release, make clear that it is time to open an impeachment inquiry,” Neguse, a Judiciary Committee member, tweeted after McGahn was a no-show.
18. Ilhan Omar (Minn.)
“We must begin impeachment proceedings and investigate if the president committed impeachable offenses,” Omar tweeted after the Mueller report’s release. She also co-sponsored Tlaib’s resolution.
19. Mark Pocan (Wis.)
“Stonewalling Congress on witnesses and the unredacted Mueller report only enhances the President’s appearance of guilt, and as a result, he has pushed Congress to a point where we must start an impeachment inquiry,” tweeted Pocan, a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
20. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.)
Pressley is also a co-sponsor of Tlaib’s resolution. “There’s a lack of moral fortitude and fitness to even be in this office,” Pressley told Boston Public Radio. “I think what we have seen that is unredacted in this report relative to examples of obstruction of justice also gives us the legal grounds.”
21. Jamie Raskin (Md.)
Raskin, a member of the Judiciary Committee and Oversight and Reform Committees, told The Washington Post that “the logic of an impeachment inquiry is pretty overwhelming at this point.”
22. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.)
Rice said on Twitter that “Congress has a moral obligation to put our politics aside and take action,” calling on lawmakers to begin impeachment hearings. The New York lawmaker had opposed Pelosi’s bid for Speakership.
23. Mary Gay Scanlon (Pa.)
“No one is above the law. The time has come to start an impeachment inquiry because the American people deserve to know the truth and to have the opportunity to judge the gravity of the evidence and charges leveled against the president,” Scanlon, the Judiciary Committee’s vice chairwoman, said in a statement after McGahn declined to show up for Tuesday’s hearing.
24. Rep. Jackie Speier (Calif.)
“I believe that an inquiry into impeachment is required at this point in time,” Speier, a member of the Oversight and Reform Committee, told CNN’s “New Day.”
25. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.)
In addition to her impeachment inquiry resolution, Tlaib drew attention on her first day as a member of Congress in January for pledging to a crowd of supporters that “we’re going to impeach the motherf—er.”
26. Filemon Vela (Texas)
Vela has signed on to Tlaib’s resolution calling for an impeachment inquiry.
27. Maxine Waters (Calif.)
Waters was one of the first Democrats to call for Trump’s impeachment. Waters told CNN in a recent interview that Trump has “done everything that one could even think of to be eligible for impeachment.”
28. John Yarmuth (Ky.)
“I’ve been there a long time,” Yarmuth told The Hill when confirming he supports launching an impeachment inquiry, noting he co-sponsored an impeachment resolution in the last Congress when Republicans controlled the House.
Bit by bit… inch by inch…
The song was always an allegory:
“Waters has also subpoenaed Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank, and JP Morgan Chase, with Royal Bank of Canada in the process of complying, according to NBC. The committee set a May 6 subpoena deadline for the documents.”
Requests in 3,2,1…
Unfortunately, he just gave them a bribe, so we’ll see if that remains true in a year and few months.
Proud boy vs LGBT sign.
Advanced sign materials for the win!
Essentail life lesson not yet learned: knowing when to concede instead of doubling down.
Glad they caught it on camera.
I don’t think this is recent, i remember seeing it a while back. However, that doesn’t for a moment spoil the enjoyment of it. Poor broflake…
Yeah I’m pretty sure that’s the “did it to piss off Joey” guy. Always great to see him again, though. Nothing like the optics of frantically trying to rip up a corrugated plastic sign that says “down with fascism”.
“…all the babies in the world won’t happen if their mother isn’t already alive.
It’s like trying to have eggs without chickens.”
Fucking A.
I really need to make a teeshirt paraphrasing James Baldwin;
I can’t see the quote, just a lot of x-ed boxes.
Seriously?
“I am NOT your broodmare.”
Your phone’s software can’t read the coding, I guess.
Noted.
