Seven members of New York City’s congressional delegation, led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, joined Mayor Bill de Blasio Saturday to demand President Trump be impeached in the wake of Wednesday’s riot at the US Capitol.
“He is a clear and present danger to the health, safety and well-being of the American people,” Jeffries, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s heir apparent, said.
Jeffries, along with Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Nydia Velázquez, Gregory Meeks, Adriano Espaillat, Tom Suozzi, and Jamaal Bowman stood masked on the steps of City Hall and railed against Trump and the “domestic terrorists” they said attacked Congress.
“He should be impeached, convicted … and forever banished to the dustbin of history,” Jeffries said.
Bowman blamed “white nationalism and white supremacy” for the violence, linking the Senate runoff races in Georgia won by Democrats on Tuesday to the Capitol Hill incursion the next day.
“How the hell were they able to overwhelm the Capitol?” he asked. “Some of the police let the rioters in.”
But the officials pooh-poohed a reporter who asked how the Washington mob differed from the Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters who torched and looted American cities, including New York, last summer.
“That’s an irrelevant question,” Jeffries huffed.
While the impeachment measure will hit a brick wall in the Senate, Jeffries said that the House “has a responsibility to put it on them to act.”
And, Suozzi added, the House’s vote alone could have an immediate effect: stymieing Trump’s ability to pardon those who wreaked havoc on the Capitol.
“He’ll be the only president in the history of the United States of America to be impeached two times,” Suozzi said. “But that’s the most important thing, removing his pardon power.”