January 10, 2021

Republicans Ask Biden to Stop Impeachment in the “Spirit of Healing.” AOC Says That’s BS.

“The process of healing is separate and in fact requires accountability.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a House Oversight hearing in August Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the case for impeaching President Donald Trump on Sunday, after a group of Republican members of Congress sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging him to stop Democrats from attempting to do so.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet announced whether she will schedule impeachment proceedings against Trump, after he incited a violent mob of supporters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday. With only days left in Trump’s term, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and six other Republican representatives wrote in a letter to Biden on Saturday that they believed impeachment was “as unnecessary as it is inflammatory,” and that Biden should intervene “in the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution.” 

Ocasio-Cortez pushed back against their argument on Sunday, and noted that impeaching Trump would bar him from ever running for president ever again. “When we talk about healing, the process of healing is separate and in fact requires accountability,” she said in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week.” “And so if we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity, with no accountability, we are inviting it to happen again.”

“We came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday,” she said, referring to the fact that some members were not present in the chamber the day of the mob attack. “If a foreign head of state…came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted? Would we say there should be absolutely no response to that? No.”

Democrats are exploring multiple avenues for removing Trump, including through impeachment or the 25th Amendment. Ocasio-Cortez added that Democrats are considering whether to invoke the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies elected officials, including lawmakers, who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States. Watch the full interview below.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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