Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), one of the foremost proponents of the push to impeach President Donald Trump, said on Sept. 23 that if fellow Democrats didn’t help in the effort, the public would “turn on” the party.
At a rally in Washington, Green told the crowd: “If we don’t do this rather quickly, the public is going to turn on us. And we are going to find that those who went to the polls and gave us this great majority are going to be very disappointed.”
Green has brought articles of impeachment to a vote on the House floor three times. In the latest vote, on July 17, the Democrat-controlled House voted 332-95 against Green’s measure.
Though recent polls show the majority of respondents are not supportive of impeaching Trump, Green said Democrats can change that.
“Polls can drive you, or you can drive the polls. You drive the polls by showing people evidence of what you believe to be the case,” Green said.
Green said in May he’s afraid that Trump will get reelected if Democrats aren’t able to impeach him.
“If we don’t impeach him, he will say that he has been vindicated, he will say the Democrats had an overwhelming majority in the House and they didn’t take up impeachment. He will say that we had a constitutional duty to do it if it was there and we didn’t. He will say that he has been vindicated.”
Reacting to the clip, Trump wrote on Twitter: “He wants to impeach because they can’t win election. Sad!”
Trump’s opponents for years pushed allegations of Trump colluding with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election, only to pivot after an investigative report by special counsel Robert Mueller was unable to back up the claims.
The latest effort to oust Trump comes after the president allegedly spoke to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating former Vice President Joe Biden pressuring Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was probing Biden’s son’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company.
A number of House Democrats said in an op-ed published in the Washington Post that they now support impeachment.
The lawmakers—Reps. Gil Cisneros of California, Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia—are mostly from swing districts.
“These allegations are stunning, both in the national security threat they pose and the potential corruption they represent,” the lawmakers wrote. “These new allegations are a threat to all we have sworn to protect. We must preserve the checks and balances envisioned by the Founders and restore the trust of the American people in our government. And that is what we intend to do.”
