Video: Rashida Tlaib Fumbles Over Call for Impeachment in Awkward Moment
A Democratic lawmaker who has called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment from the moment she took office fumbled on Wednesday as she tried to announce her plans to begin impeaching him.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who in January said she was anxious to “impeach the mother—-er,” in reference to Trump, announced to her supporters that she will be taking formal action against Trump.
“Later on this month, I will be joining folks and advocates across the country to file the impeachment, um, ah, um, oh, my God, what is the expression?” she said Wednesday to a crowd outside of the office of House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
“The resolution — I’m sorry, I’m not in the Michigan legislature, ah, impeachment resolution to start the impeachment proceedings.”
After struggling to articulate clearly, Tlaib outlined what she said was the case against Trump, CNN reported.
“It’s really important that the president of the United States is investigated in violations of the United States Constitution,” she said, referring to the Democrats’ contention that Trump has violated the emoluments clause, prohibiting gifts or benefits from foreign governments.
“We have to also look into how the president has obstructed justice,” the congresswoman continued, referring to Trump’s ouster of former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump has “basically been able to bully his way to get his way. It’s not in the best interests of the American people,” she said.
Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has soft-pedaled impeachment talk, Tlaib said it’s critical to the Democrats’ agenda.
“We want to be able to work on these economic justice issues, racial justice issues and everything. But guess what? There is a wall there, and a constitutional crisis that is not going to be able to have us be able to do our jobs as American Congress members to push a lot of these agendas forward,” Tlaib said.
“This last election was a calling, I mean we saw record turnout in an election year where people wanted to elect the jury that would begin the impeachment proceedings to Donald Trump,” she added.
But one top Democrat said it’s still too early to be to be talking about impeachment.
“Impeachment is premature at this moment,” Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat and the Democratic Caucus chair, told reporters, according to The Washington Times.
Democratic Congressman Joe Cunningham of South Carolina also said impeachment is not what voters elected Democrats to do.
“That is not an issue that is front and center in our district,” Cunningham said. “We’ve got problems with infrastructure. We’ve got problems with our schools, the cost of health care and things that are hurting people at their own kitchen tables.”
Tlaib, however, said Democrats are united.
“I think that every single colleague of mine agrees there are impeachable offenses. That’s one thing we all agree on,” she said. “We may disagree on the pace. We may disagree that we have to wait on certain hearings, but at the same time, I think they all know the dangers of allowing President Trump to continue to violate our United States Constitution.”
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