Rashida Tlaib Reveals She Gave Anti-Trump Gift to Every Freshman Member of Congress

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Feb. 27, 2019. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) revealed in a recent interview that she gave each freshman Congress member a book on impeaching President Donald Trump during orientation week last year.

During an appearance with John Nichols on The Nation’s “Next Left” podcast on June 11, Tlaib recounted her story about how she gifted every freshman member of Congress a copy of “The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump,” which is written by Ron Fein, John Bonifaz, and Ben Clements. Meanwhile, the book’s foreword was written by Nichol’s himself.

“It was such a great gift,” Tlaib said. “So it was orientation week and uh, you’re, you know, all of a sudden I was getting, you know, uh Speaker Pelosi sent, you know, something to I think chocolates and, and every person that was, uh, in, in some sort of leadership role was sending stuff to our hotels who would come in and their stuff right already on our, uh, in our hotel room.”

“And I said, ‘Can I do that?’ And, and my chief of staff said, ‘Sure, I’ll find out.’ I said, ‘Well this is my gift is, is the Guide to Impeaching the President,’” she added.

The freshman Democrat is a vocal critic of Trump. Several hours after being sworn into Congress, she made headlines by referring to the president using an expletive and vowed to impeach him.

“People love you and you win. And when your son looks at you and says, ‘Momma, look you won. Bullies don’t win.’ And I said, ‘Baby, they don’t, because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the [expletive],” Tlaib said in January this year.

Following her remarks, more than 200,000 individuals signed an online petition calling for Tlaib’s removal.

Tlaib has also written an op-ed published in The Detroit Free Press calling for the president’s impeachment and listing, without evidence, allegations of Trump’s impeachable offenses. Her long list of Trump’s alleged crimes includes “ordering the cruel and unconstitutional imprisonment of children and their families at the southern border,” obstructing justice, and advocating illegal violence. The president was never charged with any of the offenses Tlaib listed.

In March, Tlaib introduced a resolution that gives the House Judiciary Committee power to “inquire whether the House of Representatives should impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America.”

The inquiry would have the power to issue subpoenas and take affidavits and depositions, while getting funds from the House accounts in “sums as may be necessary to assist the Committee on the Judiciary in conducting the inquiry under this resolution, any of which may be used for the procurement of staff or consultant services.”

The Palestinian-American lawmaker also received backlash for making controversial remarks, including having links to prominent supporters who posted pro-terror content, saying she feels more Palestinian in Congress than anywhere else, as well as several anti-semitic remarks.

Trump joined a number of prominent Republicans in criticizing Tlaib for making an insensitive statement about the Holocaust in May.

She made the remarks on the podcast “Skullduggery,” where she said she felt a “calming feeling” when she thinks about the Holocaust—a genocide that saw about 6 million Jews killed.

“Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people,” Trump tweeted. “Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?”

Tlaib was one of several openly-socialist candidates elected to Congress in 2018. The Greater Detroit Democratic Socialists of America endorsed her candidacy in May 2018.

Ivan Pentchoukov and Petr Svab contributed to this report.