 "How contagious is it? – Firstpost")
Representative Al Green announced this week he wants to introduce impeachment articles against President Donald Trump — and now, the lawmaker says he won’t lobby a single person to push it through.
Green, a firebrand Democrat from Texas, spoke on the House floor Wednesday announcing he plans to “bring articles of impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed, and dastardly deeds done.” If successful, Trump would be the first president to be impeached three times — after he already became the first president to be impeached twice during his first term.
In the House speech, Green condemned Trump’s call for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza. Trump said that the U.S. would “own it” and “level the site” to “create economic development” as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who later praised the idea.
Green told The Independent it was an unbelievable sight.
“There are some things that will shock the conscience. There are some things that literally would cause one to think, ‘This is not happening,’” Green said Thursday afternoon. “It was unbelievable, when I saw the President and the Prime Minister of Israel standing near each other, and the President was indicating that there would be this takeover of Gaza.”
Reports indicate there isn’t much Democratic support for Green’s efforts. Representative Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking House Democrat, told Politico the caucus isn’t focusing on Green’s effort. A senior House Democrat, when asked by Axios whether Green’s article might gain traction, similarly replied: “No.”
But Green revealed he isn’t interested in lobbying anyone to vote in support of his efforts.
“I’m not going to lobby a single person,” Green said. “I’m not going to ask anyone to vote for this resolution that I will bring.”
“I believe that we have to give people the opportunity to do what we perceive to be right, and more appropriately, what we perceive to be the righteous thing to do,” he continued.
World leaders are joining Green in speaking out against Trump’s call to “take over” Gaza. Saudi Arabia said it “unequivocally rejected” the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, while U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Palestinians “must be allowed home.” French and German officials also said that any such movement of Palestinians would violate international law.
“These are human beings,” Green told The Independent. “They’re not cattle. They’re not cattle that you can just herd. They’re not dogs that you can push off into some area of a yard. These are human beings, and by the way, this is their land.”
Green hasn’t submitted the articles yet, he said, and the exact charges he outlines could vary. But the overarching theme of the articles is already clear.
“The overarching theme will be that the President is unfit,” Green said. “He is unfit to the President of the United States of America, and I will state my rationale, that he’s unfit, in the articles of impeachment.”
The White House has dismissed Green’s efforts, with White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields accusing Democrats of continuing to “waste their time on publicity stunts that go against the wishes of the American people.”
“President Trump was elected in a historic landslide to deliver his America First agenda and keep the promises he made on the campaign trail—Democrats can either get on board or keep losing elections,” Fields previously told The Independent.
This isn’t Green’s first time trying to impeach Trump.
In 2017, before Trump was successfully impeached twice, Green forced a vote on whether to open debate on a motion to impeach the then-president. The effort failed after only 58 other Democrats supported it.
Then, in 2019, Democrats successfully impeached Trump for the first time on two articles: obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, related to his dealings with Ukraine. The Senate later voted to acquit him on both articles.
Trump was impeached again two years later. Democrats and 10 Republicans voted in support of the article, which charged Trump with “incitement of insurrection” following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots.
The Senate once again acquitted him in February 2021, despite a majority of senators – 57 to 43 – voting to convict him. However, that number failed by 10 votes to reach the two-thirds limit required for a conviction.
