Rep. Al Green of Texas said Wednesday that fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives should consider President Trump’s “racist actions” when drafting articles of impeachment.
In a scathing memo, Mr. Green recalled that the Democratic-controlled House already passed a resolution months ago condemning “racist comments” Mr. Trump made about several congresswomen of color.
“How will history judge this Congress that passed a resolution indicating President Trump made harmful, racist comments if it does not impeach him for his impeachable racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, transphobic, xenophobic language instigating enmity and inciting violence within our society?” Mr. Green wrote.
“How will failure to impeach an unapologetic President Trump for the adverse impact his racism is having on the countless African-American victims who believe that, too often, one party ignores us and the other takes us for granted?” the congressman continued.
Mr. Green issued the memo as the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing in the ongoing impeachment inquiry putting Mr. Trump’s presidency at risk. Its members and their attorneys asked related questions of several constitutional experts at the hearing ahead of the committee eventually determining articles of impeachment to consider.
Democrats initiated the impeachment inquiry over the Trump administration withholding crucial military assistance to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression while Mr. Trump pursued a favor from his counterpart in Kyiv.
A lengthy report issued the previous evening by the House Intelligence Committee concluded that Mr. Trump “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security.”
“To those who say that the House resolution condemning the President is enough, I say if impeachment is the remedy for invidious abuse of power related to Ukraine, it should be the remedy for invidious abuse of power related to racism in the United States,” Mr. Green said in his memo Wednesday.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Passed largely along party lines, the House resolution reached in July condemned Mr. Trump for making “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.” It was introduced after Mr. Trump said on Twitter that several congresswomen of color, including a former refugee, should “go back” to the countries from where they came.
Mr. Green has repeatedly called in the past for Congress to impeach Mr. Trump, including most recently in July in response to the president’s controversial tweet.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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