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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far resisted calls for
Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings, instead backing
continued investigations of Trump and his administration by
numerous congressional panels instead.
But more Democrats are openly discussing it, and liberals like
Ocasio-Cortez, a leader of the progressive left since she beat
an established Democrat in a surprise primary upset last year,
are stepping up the pressure.
"I think it’s time for us to, at the very least, open an
impeachment inquiry ... we’ve been given no choice I think, in
this scenario," Ocasio-Cortez said outside the House of
Representatives.
She said the Mueller report on Russian meddling in the 2016
campaign had described evidence of obstruction of the
investigation by the executive branch, adding that the report
had pointed directly to Congress as the body to take action.
The report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller stopped short of
declaring that the president obstructed justice, but it also did
not exonerate him.
"We now have the president actively discouraging witnesses from
coming in to answer a legally binding subpoena from Congress,"
Ocasio-Cortez added. Former White House counsel Don McGahn on
Tuesday defied a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee, at
the White House's request.
"It’s getting to the point where we can’t even do our own jobs.
And I think it is entirely appropriate, given this overwhelming
amount of evidence and the continued actions from the executive
branch, that we exert our power as a co-equal branch of
government," Ocasio-Cortez said.
She said she was not sure whether impeachment advocates were a
majority of the Democrats in the House, but "I personally have
not felt a very strong opposition to impeachment."
Another Democratic lawmaker, Representative John Yarmuth, said
on Tuesday he believed Pelosi realizes events are trending in
the direction of impeachment, even as the Democratic leader
argues for continued focus on House investigations of the Trump
administration.
Pelosi listened as advocates of impeachment spoke at a Monday
night meeting with senior Democrats, Yarmuth said.
"I think she realizes that the path is leading more and more
inevitably toward an impeachment process. But she wants to let
all these committees do their thing," Yarmuth said outside the
House.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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