Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called to impeach President Trump on her first day in Congress in an op-ed on Thursday in the Detroit Free Press titled “Now is the time to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump.”
Tlaib in the article, co-written by Trump impeachment advocate John Bonifaz, drew a distinction between “the power of a criminal prosecution” and “the impeachment power.”
{mosads}”While Congress has the impeachment power to prevent future harm to our government, prosecutors have the power to seek punishment for those who commit crimes,” Tlaib and Bonifaz wrote.
“Those who say we must wait for Special Counsel Mueller to complete his criminal investigation before Congress can start any impeachment proceedings ignore this crucial distinction,” the article continues.
The op-ed is a break from top Democratic leaders who have said they are waiting to see the final results from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation before they seriously examine impeachment.
Newly-elected Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told USA Today in an article published Thursday that she does not intend to seek grounds for impeachment unless it’s “clearly bipartisan.”
“We already have overwhelming evidence that the president has committed impeachable offenses,” Tlaib and Bonifaz wrote. They went on to accuse Trump of offenses including obstruction of justice, “violating the emoluments clause,” “abusing the pardon power,” “directing or seeking to direct law enforcement to prosecute political adversaries for improper purposes,” and more.
“This is not just about Donald Trump,” they wrote. “This is about all of us. What should we be as a nation? Who should we be as a people? In the face of this constitutional crisis, we must rise.”
Tlaib throughout her campaign pushed Trump’s impeachment as a central tenant of her platform.
“I keep telling people this is about electing a jury that will impeach him, and I make a heck of a juror,” Tlaib, one of the first of two Muslim women elected to Congress this year, told The Hill in April.
Tlaib in the article also rejected arguments that seeking to impeach Trump is “politically unwise.”
“Such a claim places partisan gamesmanship over our country and our most vulnerable at this perilous moment in our nation’s history,” she wrote.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) intends to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump on Thursday as the new session of Congress convenes, The Los Angeles Times reported.
A measure to impeach Trump filed by Sherman in 2017 overwhelmingly failed.
Democrats will have a greater ability to bring impeachment measures to the floor now that they have taken the majority.