By Keira Havens, Executive Director, Citizen’s Impeachment
Members of Congress who refuse to uphold their oath of office are disregarding American institutions, political traditions, and the rule of law.
In response to angry town halls and constituent pressure, Congress’s Inertia Caucus (that is, most of them) published some breathless handwringing about their base’s demands. They claim crazy people are demanding that Congress do crazy things, like get shot by ICE, to protest our new authoritarian government.
Let me be extremely clear to those members who are facing pressure from their constituents, maybe for the first time in their careers: no one needs you to get shot. We need you to do your job.
Every single member of Congress swore an oath to support and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As an Air Force veteran, so did I, as did every other member of the Armed Forces. My responsibility as a citizen is the same as our members of Congress — to remove this manifestly unfit president from office. If Trump isn’t sure he needs to uphold the Constitution, he should not be leading our democracy. Simple.
So, to all members of Congress: your constituents are asking you for action. They are asking you to follow your oath of office, maybe even your own conscience, and go on the record supporting Trump’s impeachment. Working towards impeachment requires only courage, not blood.
Impeachment is constitutional, patriotic, and unequivocally necessary. And so, it’s important to understand the reluctance to take action as a deliberate choice by our members of Congress. Politics requires action — do nothing, and nothing happens.
I’ve proudly watched as members of my organization kickstarted this conversation in the House with a mass action that put 15 members of Congress on the record in support of impeachment, and directly led to the introduction of H. Res. 353. That impeachment resolution did not come to a vote, and neither did the next one. But H. Res 537 did. This is the political process in a nutshell: take a stand in accordance with your principles. Take action. Lead the coalition, and vote for the world you want to see.
Instead of taking a bold, principled stance, Congress keeps trying to pass the buck. Rep. Brad Schneider, along with 127 of his colleagues, voted to table H. Res. 537, and now sends the following canned response to constituents asking about impeachment. “Maybe, in time, the general public will come to see what we know to be true: that President Trump is unfit for office and that he and his administration are violating the law and undermining our Constitution.”
But what I can see in my work is that the general public does understand this. According to Data for Progress, 84% of Democratic voters, 55% of Independents and 20% of Republican voters support impeachment. That is why they are angry with their representatives for not pursuing impeachment — it’s quite a popular position, for everyone outside of Congress. And it’s not just blue cities asking members of Congress to do their jobs and remove Donald Trump from power. Support for impeachment is emerging strongly in rural areas, too, with a majority of voters polled in eastern and central Washington supporting impeachment.
These polls provide a clear bellwether for the Democratic party. It’s time to uphold your oath of office — for your constituents, for your country, and for the Constitution.
Impeachment is that rare case where it is both the right thing to do and the popular thing to do. And yet, as the House wavers (except for stalwart members like Al Green, Shri Thanedar, and André Carson, who have all sponsored or cosponsored articles of impeachment), the Senate is too afraid to even speak the word.
My organization put the question to the Senate in July and not a single Senator was willing to go on the record in support of impeachment. Not even Sen. Ossoff (D-GA), who said in May that the president’s conduct “has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment.” Not Sen. Schiff (D-CA), the former impeachment manager who, after holding a “dangerous and out-of-control president accountable,” said: “I would do so again — in a heartbeat — if the circumstances should ever require it.”
To all the members of Congress: the circumstances right now require your courage and your action to impeach Donald J. Trump.
Members of Congress are some of the most powerful people in the world. That they are too afraid to put their money where their mouth is — where their base is — in a moment when the country needs them most, is an indictment of our political system and the cowards that operate it.
Congress cannot keep hiding from their oaths forever. Citizens are catching on, and members know it. As one anonymous lawmaker told NBC, “They aren’t buying that just because we are in the minority, we can’t do anything. The truth is we can. And we should.”