Auntie Maxine and POC in Congress Have Been Calling for Impeachment
It’s finally happening.
A formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump was announced last Friday, September 27th. The formal inquiry came, nearly three years into Trump’s presidency, after a whistleblower came forward and transcripts were released of Trump asking Ukraine’s president to dig up dirt on Vice President Joe Biden, to be used against him in the 2020 presidential election.
The Ukraine scandal shocked some Americans, because it showed that Trump was trying to use support from a foreign government to influence an election. However, other Americans—especially African-Americans and millennials—weren’t shocked. They’d been warned since the beginning of Trump’s presidency that this day would come.
“We’re not [shocked], you’re not, I’m not, because we know who he is and what he’s all about. He defined himself a long time ago,” said Representative Maxine Waters in an interview with BuzzFeed News. In fact, anyone surprised by the new perusal of impeachment hasn’t been listening to Waters, or the Squad, or Rep. Al Green, who have advocated for impeachment since the beginning of 2017. These Black and POC members of Congress, the first and most prominent being Maxine Waters, have been calling for impeachment this whole time.
Two Years of Knowing
Auntie Maxine Waters, Representative for California’s 45th District and Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, first called for impeachment within the first two weeks of Trump’s presidency. A long-time incumbent beloved by her district, she quickly rose to national fame through her outspoken speeches and moments like her infamous “reclaiming my time” directive during Steve Mnuchin’s congressional hearing.
For the last two years, Waters has steadily kept up the call for impeachment through all of Trump’s scandals and gaffes, too many to go into beyond a list. Accusations of sexual assault, the travel ban. detention camps on the border, child separation, the trans military ban, unethical spending, the Mueller investigation. So many acts that have changed the course of this country, that another president (like the one who came before him) would likely not get away with. And yet, when speaking out about impeachment, Waters was criticized privately and publicly by Democratic leadership, from May 2017 to June 2018 to this past May.
As Waters has been steadily speaking out against the President, other Black and POC congresspeople have taken up the call. In December 2017, Representative Al Green of Texas’s 9th District submitted a resolution to impeach Trump, accusing him of “harm[ing] the society of the United States.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan’s 13th District called to “Impeach the Motherf**ker” hours after being sworn into office last January. And Tlaib, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley—since dubbed “The Squad”—condemned Trump after he went after them with racist tweets. All these Representatives have gone up against Trump’s administration, and the Democratic leadership for not doing more against him. They are the leaders of the movement to impeach.
Seriously, Who?
Early Saturday morning, September 28th, CNN released a video segment profiling five congresswomen who call themselves “The Badasses.” The video called them leaders who “changed the dynamic for House Democrats” by coming out in support of impeachment after the Ukraine scandal. These five freshman congresswomen were silent on impeachment for most of the year, while Waters, Green, and The Squad received hate mail and death threats for speaking out. Most of the comments under the tweet of the video called out CNN for highlighting these women over the early advocates for this whitewashed version.
Bossip’s staff have already published a stinging takedown of the misguided CNN video. While Bossip pointed out the dog-whistle racism in the video’s phrasing of the Squad’s being “loud” with “unhelpful rhetoric” and “Twitter wars,” there is another phrasing to focus on. In the video, one of the Congresswomen made the point that standing up for a cause not everyone would understand was something “[she] feel[s] comfortable doing.” Now, after the Ukraine transcript came out, many Democrats feel more comfortable calling for impeachment, including Speaker Pelosi. But what about those who have forgone comfort for keeping the presidency accountable? Shouldn’t they be acknowledged and thanked?
What is Impeachment Anyway?
The Washington Post has a great article that lays out all the details surrounding the now formal impeachment inquiry. Basically, the active investigations into Trump going on now will continue as parts of the formal inquiry. Once the investigators decide what should go into the impeachment resolution—what Trump should be impeached for—it goes to the House Judiciary Committee, and they work on the impeachment resolution, which is voted on by the House. At that point it’s up to the Senate whether the President will be removed from the office, which has never happened before.
Also, because there isn’t a strict impeachment process laid out in the Constitution, all that has to happen in this inquiry is for investigators to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the President is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” With the whistleblower and the transcripts of the call with the Ukrainian President, there’s now something solid that shows Trump’s guilt in political terms. The lack of something solid was what kept Speaker of the House Pelosi from going after impeachment before.
Now Speaker Pelosi has caught up to the impeachment initiative the began two weeks into the presidency and has continued growing since. The formal inquiry will possibly be long and drawn-out; there’s no official timeline but Democrats have a rough sketch of four months.
No matter how long it takes from this point, Auntie Maxine is positive. “I’m ready,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I’ve been ready for a long time.”
