During an appearance on MSNBC Monday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) urged fellow Democrat lawmakers to make efforts to impeach President Donald Trump a central issue.
A partial transcript follows:
DAVID GURA: You’ve had a couple of days to consider what happened on Tuesday of this week, just to pivot to another subject here. That being what happened in a federal courtroom outside of Washington, D.C. in Alexandria, what happened in New York, as well. Michael Cohen plead guilty to some campaign finance violations, among other things. I want to read a little bit from your statement you issued after those two things happened. You said, ‘This is not a witch hunt or fake news. These are real charges of criminal behavior. These are based on real facts, real evidence, and real testimony. In the final analysis, all of this will lead to real articles of impeachment.’ We’ll get to that last part in just a second. Let’s start with what changed this week. What happened on Tuesday, how that changes the narrative surrounding this president.
REP. MAXINE WATERS: Well, I think that it has been difficult for many Americans to keep up with everything that’s been going on in this investigation. There’s so many parts to it. So many new names that are introduced almost on a daily basis, but I think what happened—have to focus people on some individuals that they had been hearing about and the charges that were being initiated. Absolutely, when this president was named as a co-conspirator, an unindicted co-conspirator in the hush money information that had been circulating for so long, I think that changed an awful lot. I think that when Cohen came forward and he was able to certainly appear to be very truthful about his role and the role of this president, I think that people began to understand there’s something real about all of this. There’s some truth being told here and you have someone who’s willing to come forward and admit guilt and also name the president of the United States of America. Then we heard about all of this immunity that’s being given. This immunity is given as everybody has identified is not done lightly. This immunity is only given when there’s clear evidence that the individuals have something to talk about, something to share that will be helpful in getting to the bottom of the guilty charges.
GURA: I promised I’d return to that last clause in that excerpt from your statement that is ‘this will lead to real articles of impeachment.’ There’s a lot of ink being spilled right now in paper across the country about whether Democrats should run on this issue, how much they should be talking about impeachment as they campaign for office ahead of the midterm elections. What’s your perspective on that? How does what happened on Tuesday change that conversation within your party?
WATERS: Well, let me just say this. You know, I’ve been talking about impeachment for a long time. My party has not made this their central issue. They have insisted they need to talk about the issues that they believe are central to the concern of the American people. They wanted to make sure that the American people understand and always understood that Medicare is very important, Medicaid is very important. The Obamacare initiative that was signed into law and has been active in making sure that every human being, every citizen has the opportunity to have healthcare. These are the issues that they’ve been talking about. They want to keep it at the American forefront. You know I’ve been saying we can walk and chew gum at the same time. There is no reason why we shouldn’t talk about those issues, but allow the American people to understand that we know something is going on.
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