Impeachment - så går det till

Rep. Al Green will file articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday night, triggering a contentious vote in the coming days to confront an issue that has bitterly divided the Democratic Party.

The Texas congressman, who notified Democratic leaders of his decision on Tuesday, said the House must impeach Trump for racist remarks suggesting four minority congresswoman “go back” to their ancestral countries as well as other comments made in the past. The four Democrats — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — are all citizens; three were born in the United States.

“I think that we should not have this level of bigotry emanating from the president of the United States of America,” Green said in an interview with The Washington Post. “He is clearly making racist comments … The question becomes: What do we do about it?”

The House on Wednesday killed an attempt to impeach President Trump for statements that the chamber condemned this week as racist, turning aside an accusation that he had brought “ridicule, disgrace and disrepute” to his office.

The move split Democrats, underscoring the divisions within the party over whether they should use their majority to charge Mr. Trump and try to remove him from office, with 95 signaling their support for at least considering the question further, and 137 moving to stop the current effort in its tracks.

Elizabeth Warren

The House must impeach. It must start today.

Late Monday, an influential group of freshmen Democrats who served in the military and national security before winning office said Trump’s actions cut to the core of the country’s defenses. Their views, as centrist lawmakers from previously Republican-held districts where Trump has been popular, hold sway with party leadership.

The fresh calls for impeachment proceedings come as House Democrats are heading into a closed-door meeting Tuesday with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi and her leadership team on the various oversight committees are considering bringing forward a resolution that will put the House on the record on this matter, according to a Democratic leadership aide unauthorized to discuss the private talks. The aide was granted anonymity.

Still, Democrats remained divided on moving forward with an effort to impeach Trump. Pelosi has resisted calls for impeachment and is sticking with her position that Congress must not start formal proceedings unless the American public demands it.

However, Pelosi said Sunday that unless the administration provides more information to Congress by the scheduled Thursday hearing at the intelligence committee, its officials “will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to announce a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Tuesday, acquiescing to mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers following reports that Trump may have sought a foreign government’s help in his reelection bid.

The decision sets up an election season clash between Trump and Congress that seems certain to exacerbate the nation’s fierce partisan divides and inject deep uncertainty into the 2020 presidential contest.

Pelosi was huddling with her caucus Tuesday afternoon and planned to announce the impeachment probe in a statement following the meeting. Her plans were confirmed by a person familiar with her thinking, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will say later Tuesday she is directing an impeachment inquiry into President Trump following reports that the president withheld aid to Ukraine while he was pressing the country to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, two people person familiar with the matter said.

The announcement is expected at 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, after a meeting with all Democratic House lawmakers to discuss the Ukraine matter and growing calls from Democrats to pursue removing Mr. Trump from office.

The move is a culmination of what has been a nearly yearlong debate among Democrats about how hard to push for Mr. Trump’s removal, particularly since they took control of the House this year. Earlier, Democrats’ focus was on Mr. Trump’s campaign ties to Russia, the subject of a special counsel report earlier this year, among other issues involving the president. Now, some lawmakers are arguing that the president using his position to pressure a foreign entity to investigate a political opponent for his own gain is an impeachable offense.