A Democratic representative told the US House on Wednesday he was bringing articles of impeachment against Donald Trump for his proposal to “take over Gaza”.
Trump’s plan, the Texas representative Al Green said, was a “desperate deed” that amounted to ethnic cleansing.
The aggressive move came as Democrats stepped up their resistance to the fledgling Trump administration and its barrage of chaotic, power-grabbing new policies that many see as a coup.
Green, a firebrand politician who launched a number of unsuccessful attempts to impeach Trump during his first term in office, is unlikely to find much traction on his latest effort. Pete Aguilar, the No 3 House Democrat, told Politico on Wednesday that impeachment was not an immediate focus of his caucus.
But it is evidence that more elected Democrats are finding their voice amid what critics say has been a muted response so far to the extremes of Trump’s 16-day-old second presidency. The liberal advocacy group Call to Activism posted on X on Tuesday a clip of the Maryland representative Jamie Raskin suggesting he was also open to a new impeachment effort.
“If you can find me two Republicans, I’ll go to work tomorrow,” Raskin said, referring to the governing party’s wafer-thin House majority.
Green invoked the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr in lambasting Trump’s proposal to remove Palestinians from Gaza and rebuild the war-torn territory as a US-owned “Riviera of the Middle East”. The plan has been globally condemned as “outrageous”, “shameful” and “illegal”.
“Ethnic cleansing in Gaza is not a joke, especially when it emanates from the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world,” he said. “And the prime minister of Israel should be ashamed, knowing the history of his people, to stand there and allow such things to be said.
“Dr King was right. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and injustice in Gaza is a threat to justice in the United States of America. I rise to announce that the movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring articles of impeachment against the president for desperate deeds proposed, and desperate deeds done.”
Green said the “impeachment movement is going to be a grass-up movement, not a top-down”, and that “when the people demand it, it will be done”.
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Trump was impeached twice during his first term, in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his efforts to seek help from Ukraine in the following year’s presidential election; and again in 2021 for inciting the January 6 Capitol riot following his defeat by Joe Biden. He was acquitted in the Senate on both occasions.
“I know that it’s time for us to lay the foundation again,” Green said on Wednesday.
“On some issues, it is better to stand alone than not stand at all. On this issue, I stand alone, but I stand for justice.”
Article by:Source: Richard Luscombe
