Steyer to hold DC summit to pressure lawmakers to impeach Trump

Democratic mega-donor Tom Steyer’s “Need to Impeach” campaign announced Tuesday plans for a two-day summit next week in Washington, D.C., to urge lawmakers to commence impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

The “Need to Impeach Summit and Advocacy Day” will consist of a town hall gathering about the state of the union and a strategy session on how to build a grass-roots following, the organization said in a news release.

The event will conclude with participants hand-delivering articles of impeachment to their representatives in an effort to increase pressure on lawmakers to remove Trump from office.

{mosads}”Leaders across party lines are finally understanding the danger his recklessness and lawlessness pose for our democracy, and now they must hold him accountable,” Steyer said in a statement on Tuesday. “Failing to act is unacceptable.”

The event is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday. 

This year’s State of the Union address was scheduled for next Tuesday, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has asked the White House to reschedule, citing the ongoing partial government shutdown. The White House has not formally responded to Pelosi’s letter on the matter.

Steyer, a billionaire philanthropist, recently announced he would not run for president in 2020, and would instead dedicate his efforts to removing Trump from office. He has raised tens of millions of dollars, launched ad campaigns and traveled across the country over the past year to gin up support for Trump’s impeachment.

While some rank-and-file Democrats have raised the prospect of launching impeachment proceedings, the party’s congressional leaders have said they are not focused on removing Trump from office unless there is clear bipartisan consensus.

Other Democrats have called for special counsel Robert Mueller to finish his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election before pressing impeachment.

Trump has downplayed concerns about impeachment proceedings in the Democratic-held House, saying in a December interview that he believes the American people “would revolt if that happened.”