De Blasio: Trump ‘has to be impeached’

Democratic presidential hopeful and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for President Trump to be impeached on Friday, citing the president’s recent remarks that he would listen if a foreign government offered dirt on a political opponent. 

“It was an invitation to make a deal. ‘You get me dirt on my opponents and we’ll take care of you,'” de Blasio told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” about Trump’s remarks. “We’ve seen no better example than with Russia and [President Vladimir] Putin where whatever Putin does he gets an affirmation from Donald Trump, and now more and more it looks like in exchange for electoral favors.

“So I heard that and I said that’s the last straw. They should begin impeachment proceedings,” he continued. “We can no longer accept the notion of a president who openly invites interference in our election.{mosads}

“Look, the Mueller report was bad enough and I thought there was plenty in there that it would eventually lead to a successful impeachment, but that interview, those breakthrough moments in life, that interview said he has learned nothing, he’s not making any changes … He has to be impeached,” he added. 

The comments come after de Blasio warned earlier this month that “there’s too much talk about impeachment” in the Democratic presidential primary. 

The New York City mayor continued to urge Democrats to focus on kitchen table issues like health care in the interview on Friday. 

“I’ve said for a long time that I’m concerned that, first of all, Democrats, in particular, need to start talking about the issues and not just impeachment. They need to focus on the issues of working Americans,” he said. “I haven’t seen enough of that. They need to focus on beating Donald Trump in an election, not just hoping he would magically disappear.”

Trump sparked outrage this week after he told ABC News that he would listen if a foreign entity offered damaging information on a political opponent. 

The president has since defended his comments, telling Fox News on Friday that he would “of course” look at politically damaging from a foreign government on his political opponents, but added he would give it to the FBI if he knew it was “bad.”