Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives, Nov. 8 to announce a vote on impeaching President Donald Trump, a year after his election to the seat.
“I now announce that before Christmas there will be a vote on the chief inciter of racism, bigotry, hatred, xenophobia, sexism, ethnocentrism,” Green said. “There will be a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Speaker, on the impeachment of the president.”
On Oct. 11, 2017, Green presented his articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the House of Representatives floor. However, there was little enthusiasm in the chamber, even from his Democratic colleagues.
Rep. Green first made his statement back in September during the Morning Hour for the House of Representatives. During his allotted time of five minutes, he claimed to be speaking as neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but on the behalf of all proud Americans.
“I rise not as a Democrat or a Republican, not as a liberal or conservative,” Green said. “Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a proud American, a person who believes in his country, who salutes the flag and says the pledge of allegiance and sings the national anthem.”
Although the president has yet to commit any serious crime that would call for his impeachment, Green states in his articles that Trump’s undermining of the integrity of the office with impunity and his betrayal of trust as president to the injury of the American people is enough to call for his impeachment.
Michael Faber, an associate political science professor at Texas State, believes President Trump has yet to commit an impeachable offense that would cause him to be removed from office.
“The bottom line is, whatever one may think of what Trump has done, his policies and everything else, there really isn’t an impeachable offense there,” Faber said. “The Constitution says that presidents can be impeached for treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors. Trump is nowhere near the constitutional definition of treason, no matter how we stretch things out.”
Green’s recent actions calling for an impeachment are not the first of its kind. Back in the July 2017, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-California, presented his own version of impeachment articles.
Rep. Stephen Cohen, D-Tennessee, is expected to support the charges. Green expressed his support for other representatives taking action against the president, stating that he will stand with them. According to a statement published on his website supporting Cohen, Green said that, as events unfold, the fact that the president called (the people in charge of the Charlottesville protests) very fine people proves that (he) should not be president of the greatest country in the world.
While impeachment has appealed to some people, others don’t see the hard evidence needed for action just yet. Although the current Russia investigation could be seen as the needed proof of treason or bribery, it is mostly built on allegations and conjectures and lacks the clear-cut evidence that would serve as the final piece for impeachment to occur. Others believe that the lack of knowledge and experience by the Trump campaign staff pushed them to seek advantages, regardless of the consequences.
“Honestly to me, all the evidence, the Russia investigation, it really looks more like the evidence of an incompetent and inexperienced campaign, more than anything else,” Faber said. “They had no idea what they were doing, they had no idea who it was proper to talk to and who it wasn’t. I really think that’s the end of it. I don’t think there’s any particular criminal behavior here.”
The resolution was not immediately voted upon since Green did not appear on the floor when his turn came to speak on his proposal. Green claimed to have wanted his colleagues to have more time to examine the legislation while others say that he has been receiving active pressure to stop the effort.