Elizabeth Warren calls on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump
Elizabeth Warren became the first Democratic presidential candidate to call for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump Friday afternoon, citing the "severity" of "misconduct" detailed in the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
"The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States," the Massachusetts senator wrote on Twitter.
The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019
In an earlier tweet, Warren said that the report proved that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of helping Mr. Trump, and showed that the president "obstructed the investigation into that attack." Mueller did not come to a conclusion as to whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice.
Warren cited a segment of the report where Mueller wrote that "Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice."
"To ignore a President's repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways," Warren wrote on Twitter.
Warren expanded on her views on impeachment at a campaign event in Keene, New Hampshire, on Saturday.
"If Donald Trump can do all that he tried to do to impede an investigation into his own wrongdoing and an attack by a foreign government, then it gives license to the next president, and the next president, and the next president to do the same thing," Warren told reporters after the event. She said that she had not been in contact with any other Democrats about her decision.
"For me this is not about politics. There are some decisions that are bigger than politics," she said.
GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel quickly fired back on Twitter Friday night.
".@realDonaldTrump was just exonerated after TWO YEARS of Democrat lies. Democrats' calls for impeachment have been bogus all along, but Elizabeth Warren is proving how truly desperate they are to appeal to their radical base," McDaniel wrote.
Other Democrats in Congress, as well as the party's 2020 candidates, have avoided saying whether they believe Mr. Trump should be impeached. Many have instead called on Mueller to testify before Congress, and for the release of the full, un-redacted report.