The Democratic Candidates Aren’t Backing Away From Impeachment

It didn’t take long for the candidates at Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate to call for President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that Congress needs to impeach Trump to ensure the survival of the Constitution. “This is about Donald Trump,” she said. “But understand, it’s about the next president and the next president and the next president and the future of this country. The impeachment must go forward.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) took to superlatives, calling Trump “the most corrupt president in the history of this country.”

“I think that the House will find him worthy of impeachment because of the emoluments clause,” he said. “This is a president who is enriching himself while using the Oval Office to do that, and that is outrageous.”

It’s not just incumbent on the House to impeach Trump, Sanders said. “Mitch McConnell has got to do the right thing and allow a free and fair trial in the Senate.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden said he agrees, reiterating what he said when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of an impeachment inquiry: that he’d support impeachment if the White House continued to stonewall Congress. Trump “is the most corrupt president in modern history, and I think all of our history,” he said. House Democrats “have no choice but to move.”

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said that, as a former prosecutor, she can tell Trump has shown a “clear consciousness of guilt.” She, like Biden and Sanders, referred to Trump as “corrupt.”

“Our framers imagined this moment, a moment where we would have a corrupt president,” she said. “And our framers then rightly designed our system of democracy to say there will be checks and balances. This is one of those moments, and so Congress must act.”

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate