Four Democrats introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Tuesday, despite the opposition of their leadership and the fact it has almost no chance of succeeding in the Republican-controlled House.
The five articles accuse the president of obstruction of justice, undermining the independence of the federal judiciary and other offences.
Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee led the effort, saying in a statement Wednesday “the time has come to make clear to the American people and to this president that his train of injuries to our Constitution must be brought to an end through impeachment.”
Cohen had brought up the spectre of impeachment after Trump’s failure to condemn white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Va., in August.
“President Trump has failed the presidential test of moral leadership,” Cohen said in a statement at the time. “No moral president would ever shy away from outright condemning hate, intolerance and bigotry.”
After comments on #Charlottesville , I’ll be introducing Articles of #Impeachment against #Trump. No good Nazis or Klansmen! #ImpeachTrump pic.twitter.com/x6pWL35evL
Cohen was joined by fellow Democrats Adriano Espaillat of New York, Al Green of Texas and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois at the news conference on Wednesday. The group said Marcia Fudge of Ohio and John Yarmuth of Kentucky plan to join the effort.
Republicans hold a majority of over 30 seats in the House and are unlikely to act on the impeachment articles. Democratic leaders largely oppose the effort, fearing that it only riles up the GOP base that is strongly supportive of the unpopular president.
‘It’s not someplace I think we should go’
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was repeatedly been cool to the idea of launching such a bid, preferring her party seize upon Trump’s divisiveness and low public approval ratings to win back the House in the 2018 midterm elections.
“You can’t go down any path without the facts and the law,” she told CNN in a recent interview.
“It’s not someplace I think we should go,” she added.
Pelosi said members of Congress should let investigations currently underway in the House and the Senate, and undertaken by special counsel Robert Mueller, play out until their conclusion. The investigations, in part, are looking at whether the president and members of his campaign team and administration have acted improperly in dealings with foreign entities.
It is the first group effort on the impeachment front.
Brad Sherman of California previously introduced articles of impeachment on the House floor in July. The resolution hasn’t been dealt with by the House Judiciary Committee, which would have to approve it by a simple majority before it could even proceed to a vote in the full body.
Green introduced his own resolution in October in a passionate speech from the House, accusing Trump of racial divisiveness. But when the time came later in the day for the House to consider the resolution, Green was absent, which effectively killed the idea.
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