Sen. Warren Calls On Congress To Initiate Impeach Proceedings Against Trump

WBUR

Published April 21, 2019 at 7:00 AM EDT

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, speaks during the National Action Network Convention in New York. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Back on the presidential campaign trail in New Hampshire this weekend, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the U.S. House of Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

The Democratic 2020 presidential candidate said impeachment is warranted because of evidence presented in special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report, which was released on Thursday.

Warren first laid out her case in a series of tweets on Friday, and further at campaign appearances in New Hampshire.

At Keene State College on Saturday, Warren said that among the top-line conclusions of the Mueller report was that a hostile foreign government attacked the American election system in 2016 to help elect Trump — and that he welcomed the help.

“And when federal government tried to investigate what happened, Donald Trump to multiple steps to try to derail or obstruct that investigation,” she said.

The president says the Mueller report vindicates him. The redacted report found the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russians, but it did not absolve the president of obstruction.

Warren said that means it’s now up to Congress to act, and that the House should begin impeachment proceedings.

However, Democrats remain divided on this issue. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other presidential candidates are concerned that impeachment could provoke a backlash. Some say judging the president should be left to the voters. Warren disagrees.

“Some decisions are bigger than politics,” she told the crowd. “If Donald Trump can do all he tried to do to impede an investigation into his own wrong-doing and an attack by a foreign government, then it gives license to the next president, and the next president … to do exactly the same thing.”

In Keene, voters had other issues on their minds, asking Warren about jobs, health care and climate change.

Democrat Sharon Breidt said while she’s appalled by the president’s behavior, she’s not convinced a fight over impeachment would help the country.

“I don’t want all the energy to go to something that maybe doesn’t have and end,” Breidt said. “I want our energy to go toward something that can do positive right now.”

But fellow Democrat Pat Shin said she agrees with Warren’s call for impeachment.

“If we allow that behavior to continue by not proceeding with impeachment because we’re afraid it might damage the vote, I feel like we’ll set ourselves up for failure — that the next president and the next, as she said, will be excused by this behavior,” Shin said.

Warren is the first major presidential candidate in a crowded Democratic field to call for impeachment proceedings against Trump. But her campaign said that will not alter her core message of fighting government corruption and economic inequality.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.