Newly sworn-in Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib is ready to impeach Trump now, and she said so, colorfully

Rep. Rashida Tlaib wants to impeach Trump

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 4 January 2019

There's definitely an impeachment caucus in the new Democratic House majority — Reps. Brad Sherman (Calif.) and Al Green (Texas) reintroduced articles of impeachment against President Trump on Thursday — but most Democrats are at least waiting for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to release his report on Russian election meddling first. "We shouldn't be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn't avoid impeachment for a political reason," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told NBC News this week.

At a party hosted by MoveOn on Thursday night, newly sworn-in Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) signaled that she is ready to impeach sooner rather than later: "When your son looks at you and says, 'Mama, look, you won — bullies don't win,' and I said, 'Baby, they don't, because we're going to go in there and we're going to impeach the motherf---er.'" (The word is not censored in the video.)

Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress and one of two Muslim women sworn in on Thursday, had already called for Trump's impeachment in a Detroit Free Press op-ed with John Bonifaz published earlier Thursday. "Trump is a direct and serious threat to our country" who "attacks our Constitution, our democracy, the rule of law, and the people who are in this country" nearly every day, they write. "Those who say we must wait for Special Counsel Mueller to complete his criminal investigation before Congress can start any impeachment proceedings ignore" the "crucial distinction" that Congress, not Mueller, is charged with deciding if Trump has committed an impeachable offense, and "there is no requirement whatsoever that a president be charged with or be convicted of a crime before Congress can impeach him." You can read their full argument at the Detroit Free Press.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.