7 First-Term House Democrats Call For Trump’s Impeachment Over Pressuring Ukraine’s President To Investigate Biden

The movement to impeach President Donald Trump grew Monday, as a group of seven freshman House Democrats urged their fellow lawmakers in an opinion piece to remove him from office over his communications with Ukraine’s leader.

Reps. Gil Cisneros (D-California), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pennsylvania), Jason Crow (D-Colorado), Mikie Sherrill (D-New Jersey), Elaine Luria (D-Virginia), Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) wrote the joint op-ed published in The Washington Post on Monday. All of them have some degree of experience in national security.

The group of lawmakers emphasized in the letter that they believe Trump should be impeached should allegations that he delayed military assistance to Ukraine in order to force the nation to probe the son of Joe Biden, the leading Democratic candidate in the 2020, prove to be true. On Tuesday, Trump admitted to reporters at the United Nations that he told Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call in July that he would postpone more than $391 million in military aid to the country until it investigated Biden’s son for alleged corruption. Trump initially denied discussing assistance to Ukraine with Zelensky or pressuring him to launch an inquiry against Biden.

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Thus far, there is no evidence to support the corruption claims against Biden and his son.

The seven first-term House Democrats insisted in their op-ed that Congress should use its full authority to investigate the veracity of the allegations about Trump’s interactions with Zelensky, including “inherent contempt,” and to impeach Trump if the claims are true. Inherent contempt refers to lawmakers’ power to call for prosecuting and potentially jailing anyone who refuses to comply with subpoenas or other requests for testimony or documents issued by a congressional committees.

“If these allegations are true, we believe these actions represent an impeachable offense,” the group of seven lawmakers wrote in their article.

The op-ed continued: “[Trump] allegedly sought to use the very security assistance dollars appropriated by Congress to create stability in the world, to help root out corruption and to protect our national security interests, for his own personal gain. These allegations are stunning, both in the national security threat they pose and the potential corruption they represent,” they added.

The group also noted the fact that the national intelligence director and the White House stopped the release of an “urgent” and “credible” whistleblower complaint filed with the inspector general about an alleged promise Trump made to a foreign leader. The inspector general in turn informed Congress about this complaint.

“Despite federal law requiring the disclosure of this complaint to Congress, the administration has blocked its release to Congress,” the op-ed reads. This flagrant disregard for the law cannot stand. To uphold and defend our Constitution, Congress must determine whether the president was indeed willing to use his power and withhold security assistance funds to persuade a foreign country to assist him in an upcoming election.”

First-term Minnesota Reps. Angie Craig (D) and Dean Phillips (D) also said this week they support impeaching Trump over his phone call with Zelensky. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-California) stated Sunday he believes impeachment may be the only appropriate response to Trump’s decision to urge Ukraine’s president to investigate his opponent in the 2020 election.

More than 140 lawmakers have now publicly said they support impeachment proceedings against Trump for a variety of reasons.