IT was hardly noticed amidst all the fuss and bother about the House of Representatives passing a vote condemning President Trump’s racist comments directed at Members of Congress, but a resolution of impeachment was tabled immediately afterwards.
As The National went to press, the House of Representatives was waiting to vote on the impeachment resolution raised by Democratic representative Al Green.
Green said in the House late on Tuesday night: “President Donald Trump’s racist comments have legitimised and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.
“Donald John Trump, by causing such harm to the society of the United States, is unfit to be president and warrants impeachment, trial and removal from office.”
The likelihood is that the impeachment vote will be “tabled” or referred to committee, which would kill the chance of impeaching Trump, but with feelings running extremely high over “Gohomegate”, anything could happen and impeachment proceedings are possible.
READ MORE: Theresa May's hypocritical reply to Donald Trump's 'go home' tweet
Green appealed yesterday for support for his impeachment vote. He told reporters such proceedings should not wait until after the testimony of former special counsel Robert Mueller next week.
Green said: “The Mueller testimony has nothing to do with his bigotry. Nothing. Zero. Nada. We cannot wait. As we wait, we risk having the blood of somebody on our hands — and it could be a member of Congress.”
It is Green’s third attempt to impeach Trump. Even if he succeeds in starting proceedings, and the House of Representatives isn’t guaranteed to go along with that, then the Republican Party votes necessary in the Senate to actually remove Trump from office will not happen.
Meanwhile, “Gohomegate” rumbles on and Trump caused more dismay, even among his fellow republicans, when he launched another attack on the four congresswomen he criticised last week – Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
They are left-wing in their views and have become known as the Dem Squad, but Trump wants them to be known as something else – the four horsewomen of the apocalypse.
He tweeted a quote from Louisiana Democrat-turned-Republican Senator John Kennedy which said: “I’m appalled that so many of our Presidential candidates are falling all over themselves to try to agree with the four horsewomen of the apocalypse. I’m entitled to say that they’re Wack Jobs (sic).’”
Trump tweeted: “In America, if you hate our Country, you are free to leave. The simple fact of the matter is, the four Congresswomen think that America is wicked in its origins, they think that America is even more wicked now, that we are all racist and evil.
“They’re entitled to their opinion, they’re Americans. Now I’m entitled to my opinion, & I just think they’re left wing cranks. They’re the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle, & we should ignore them.”
“In America, if you hate our Country, you are free to leave. The simple fact of the matter is, the four Congresswomen think that America is wicked in its origins, they think that America is even more wicked now, that we are all racist and evil. They’re entitled to their.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2019
Ocasion-Cortez tweeted in reply: “The good news in getting Trump to explicitly vocalize his racism, instead of hiding it behind vague suggestions, is that his words can be used by courts as evidence of his motivation.
“AKA his tweets may be used to dismantle his own immigration policies.”
The good news in getting Trump to explicitly vocalize his racism, instead of hiding it behind vague suggestions, is that his words can be used by courts as evidence of his motivation.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 17, 2019
AKA his tweets may be used to dismantle his own immigration policies 😇https://t.co/bKrZewfYN7
Experts in the USA say race and whether or not Trump is a racist will now be an issue in next year’s presidential election.
David Axelrod, a stratgeist for former president Barack Obama who is now a CNN senior political analyst, said on the channel: “This is not going to be the last time this happens. We are going to be having this discussion a lot in the next 17 months because [Trump] thinks it is to his advantage to do it.
“And, yes, it is important for us as a country to express our moral outrage about these tactics, but at some point, they have to be discussed as tactics.”
They didn’t need an expert to tell them. USA TODAY revealed that a clear majority of Americans say Trump’s tweets targeting four minority congresswomen were “un-American”. According to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos poll, however, most Republicans say they agreed with his comments, which the paper called “an illustration of the nation’s sharp partisan divide on issues of patriotism and race.”.
In the poll, 68% of those aware of the controversy called Trump’s tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, however, 57% said they agreed with tweets that told the congresswomen to go back to their “original” countries, and a third “strongly” agreed with them.
The US is not, it appears, united.
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