AOC slams her own party, saying Democrats’ refusal to impeach Trump is a ‘bigger national scandal’ that ‘the president’s lawbreaking behavior’ over Ukraine
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the remark in a tweet late on Saturday
- Blasted House Democrats for failing to impeach President Donald Trump
- Democrats accuse Trump of impropriety in phone call with Ukrainian president
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is increasingly under party pressure to impeach
- But Pelosi is attempting to reign in her caucus to avoid 2020 blowback
Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called her own party’s failure to impeach President Donald Trump a ‘national scandal.’
The freshman Congresswoman from New York made the remarks in a tweet late on Saturday, ratcheting up pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow impeachment to move forward.
‘At this point, the bigger national scandal isn’t the president’s lawbreaking behavior – it is the Democratic Party’s refusal to impeach him for it,’ she wrote.
Ocasio-Cortez’s forceful remarks join the growing clamor from some Democrats demanding that party leaders impeach the president, with the intelligence community whistleblower controversy fueling fresh outrage.
Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called her own party’s failure to impeach President Donald Trump a ‘national scandal’
In the latest controversy, Democrats accuse Trump of asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for dirt on Joe Biden, related to an investigation into a Ukrainian company that Biden’s son served on the board of while his father was vice president.
Trump says that Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to drop the investigation under threat of withholding U.S. aid.
The allegations about Trump emerged in a whistleblower complaint from a member of the U.S. intelligence community, who either heard the call with Zelenskiy or read a transcript from it, though details of the complaint have not been made public.
Trump calls the allegations ‘just another political hack job.’
‘I have conversations with many leaders. It’s always appropriate,’ he said of the July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy that is at the heart of the controversy.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been trying to hold back calls for impeachment, likely fearing serious damage to her party’s chances in the 2020 election
Pelosi says if reports about the complaint bear out, Trump faces ‘serious repercussions’ and the nation will have ‘grave, urgent concerns for our national security.’
But she has long resisted calls from within her party to impeach Trump, likely knowing that Republican-controlled Senate would never convict, and fearing the spectacle would damage Democrats’ chances in the 2020 election.
A senior Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, which is considering whether to impeach Trump, said the incident could feed into the panel’s deliberations.
‘This is deadly serious,’ Representative David Cicilline said on Twitter. ‘If the President does not allow the whistleblower complaint against him to be turned over to Congress, we will add it to the Articles of Impeachment.’
Democratic contenders for the party’s presidential nomination are also increasingly joining the swarm calling for impeachment.
‘What is Congress waiting for? This is crazy. Unless we take action now, we will see the end of American democracy,’ said Beto O’Rourke in a tweet on Saturday.
Biden was more restrained, saying on Saturday that Trump ‘could be impeached’ depending on the results of a House investigation.