Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:55 pm
Donald Trump is at the center of an extortion scheme to boost his reelection campaign in 2020, and MSNBC’s Joy Reid asked moderate and conservative Democrats on Saturday how this isn’t enough to warrant a robust impeachment inquiry.
On her program on Saturday, the MSNBC host asked those who remain opposed impeachment, which is already underway in the House Judiciary Committee, what it will take to change their mind.
“If national security is not compelling enough to garner enough Democratic votes for impeachment of this president, if defying Congress and defying the law are not enough, well, then, what is?” she asked.
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Video:
Joy Reid asks: If Trump’s Ukraine scheme isn’t impeachable, what is? #ctl #p2 #amjoy pic.twitter.com/UsfQw9yhMi
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) September 21, 2019
Reid said:
Any moderate or conservative Democrat who’s willing to explain to our viewers why they don’t support the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry, in the face of alarms about our national security raised about the president of the United States from within the intelligence community, they are always welcome to come on this show and explain their opposition. They can actually call in right now, because the question is if national security is not compelling enough to garner enough Democratic votes for impeachment of this president, if defying congress and defying the law are not enough, well, then, what is?
Ukraine scheme will revive impeachment talk
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in the House who have been reluctant to “go there” with impeachment will have to think long and hard about what steps to take next as the Ukraine scandal continues to blow up.
Earlier this year, Trump, the Justice Department and his Republican protectors in Congress were effective in whitewashing the Mueller report. Yes, it contains damning evidence of criminal behavior on the part of the president, but William Barr’s memo helped turn it into another right-versus-left issue to Trump’s benefit – a dynamic that has made it difficult for Democrats to fully pull the trigger on impeachment.
But the new scandal involving Trump’s criminal discussions with the leader of Ukraine won’t be as easy for this president and his protectors to muddy up. Not only is he actively extorting a foreign country to influence another presidential election, but he’s doing so from the Oval Office.
As more information comes out about this troubling new misconduct on the part of the president, it’s going to be increasingly hard for Democratic leadership to resist calls to launch full-fledged impeachment proceedings.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
