Julian Castro: Impeachment ‘Not at All’ a Distraction That Could Backfire on Democrats

Impeachment is not a distraction that could backfire on Democrats, said 2020 presidential candidate Julián Castro during the Democrat debate on Tuesday in Westerville, Ohio.

Castro’s remarks were in response to a question posed by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who asked if the Democrats’ calls for impeachment would help or hurt their party.

Castro continued:

We can walk and chew gum at the same time, and all of us are out there every single day, talking about what we’re going to do to make sure that more people cross the graduation stage, that more families have great health care, that more folks are put to work in places like Ohio where Donald Trump has broken his promises because Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania actually, in the latest jobs data, have lost jobs not gained them.

The Democrat candidate also accused President Trump of trying to obstruct justice, violating his oath of office, and abusing his power.

“We have to impeach this president, and the majority of Americans not only support impeachment, they support removal. He should be removed,” he concluded.

On October 7, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary claimed that President Trump has used the presidency to “boost himself and put his own self-interest above the national interest.”

“How much more evidence do people need that this man should not be anywhere near the Oval Office?” he asked during an interview with NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

However, Breitbart News reported on Tuesday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the U.S. House of Representatives would not hold a vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry right now.

“[T]here’s no requirement that we have a vote, and so, at this time, we will not be having a vote,” she stated.

President Trump defended himself on Twitter on Sunday by saying that the Democrats’ calls for impeachment would cause them to lose seats in the House:

The Democrats are going to lose a lot of House Seats because of their Fraudulent use of Impeachment. Schiff fabricated phone call, a crime. Democrat Senate Seats will also be put at risk, even some that were supposedly safe. Look at Louisiana last night, North Carolina last week!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2019