U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene declares support for Trump impeachment inquiry

Today, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene, who rep­re­sents NPI’s home con­gres­sion­al dis­trict, Wash­ing­ton’s 1st — declared her sup­port for an impeach­ment inquiry by the Unit­ed States House, say­ing it was nec­es­sary to hold Don­ald Trump account­able. Below is her full statement:

It gives me no plea­sure to announce that I am call­ing for the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to begin an impeach­ment inquiry into the Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.

This deci­sion has weighed heav­i­ly on my mind as I have tried to deter­mine the best course of action to take for our country.

I read the report by Spe­cial Coun­sel Robert Mueller on Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in our 2016 elec­tion, and I watched his tes­ti­mo­ny in front of Congress.

The notion that a sit­ting Pres­i­dent would attempt to derail an inves­ti­ga­tion of a direct attack on our democ­ra­cy is shock­ing, unpa­tri­ot­ic, and a vio­la­tion of the oath we share. The Pres­i­dent has tak­en vir­tu­al­ly no action to try to pre­vent Rus­sia or oth­er for­eign pow­ers from med­dling in our free and fair elec­tions in the future.

Con­gress has a respon­si­bil­i­ty laid out in the Con­sti­tu­tion to per­form over­sight. Fur­ther under­scor­ing his dis­re­gard for the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Pres­i­dent has attacked the free press, ignored con­gres­sion­al sub­poe­nas and instruct­ed his own staffers not to coop­er­ate with ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tions. With every act of defi­ance, he con­tin­ues to dis­grace his office and vio­late the checks and bal­ances that are the foun­da­tion of the Constitution.

I strong­ly believe Con­gress must ful­fill our oblig­a­tion to uphold the Con­sti­tu­tion while address­ing the prob­lems Amer­i­cans face dai­ly. All my col­leagues in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus are ful­ly com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing our democ­ra­cy and fix­ing the eco­nom­ic and social chal­lenges we face as a country.

Final­ly, I want to say direct­ly to the peo­ple I rep­re­sent that this is a very sad day. I didn’t come to Con­gress hop­ing to launch an impeach­ment inquiry against any President.

But it is Con­gress’ respon­si­bil­i­ty to give these issues the utmost atten­tion and I believe this is the best way to achieve that goal.

We agree. Thank you, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Del­Bene, for this act of leadership.

If a pres­i­dent who is fla­grant­ly vio­lat­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion and mak­ing com­mon cause with the nation’s ene­mies is not impeached, it sets a ter­ri­ble president.

There needs to be an impeach­ment inquiry of Don­ald Trump.

The con­sid­er­a­tion here needs to be the coun­try’s future and the rule of law, not the 2020 elec­tion. Democ­rats can’t wor­ry about how impeach­ment affects their reelec­tion prospects. If they do their jobs, they will be in an excel­lent posi­tion to keep the House major­i­ty. Pub­lic opin­ion is fick­le; try­ing to fol­low pub­lic opin­ion is not what lead­ers do. True lead­ers lead peo­ple to new positions.

Trump and the Repub­li­cans will lie and smear no mat­ter what the Democ­rats do. Wit­ness Trump’s attacks on Eli­jah Cum­mings this weekend.

The racist dia­tribes against the squad were only the begin­ning. Trump has sig­naled we can expect racist tweets (inspired by garbage pro­gram­ming on his favorite chan­nel, Fox) on a reg­u­lar basis in the future. The racist tweets appear to be part of his plan to rile up his base for the 2020 elec­tion. Trump under­stands how to rad­i­cal­ize right wingers; he’s been doing it for more than four years.

Impeach­ment is not an elec­toral trap, as some have argued. It is not a polit­i­cal weapon, either (which is how the Repub­li­cans tried to wield it back in the 1990s). Rather, it is a neces­si­ty for bad times. It is the essen­tial tool the Founders gave us to check and remove a pres­i­dent who has usurped their authority.

These are bad times. Very bad times. Giv­en what we already know about the con­duct of the man who sits in the White House — Indi­vid­ual No. 1 — an impeach­ment inquiry is clear­ly war­rant­ed and whol­ly necessary.

We thank Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Del­Bene for rec­og­niz­ing this.