Wednesday on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the “ground has shifted” towards the support of the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
She argued it was because “this Ukraine allegation is incredibly serious and very urgent.”
Ocasio-Cortez said, “The Judiciary Committee has long been investigating many of the violations of the president, but this Ukraine allegation is head and shoulders one of the most serious and urgent allegations that we have seen come out of this administration to date. And so I think it’s completely understandable that we’ve seen this. I think it’s an allegation that frankly has united more members of the party on impeachment than any other. So for that, I think it’s an understandable decision that we make. That being said, I do think it’s important that we continue to tell the story of the other violations, whether it’s emoluments, whether it’s having diplomats staying at Trump properties. I think all of these things need to be looked into, but this Ukraine allegation is incredibly serious and very urgent.”
She continued, “What also makes this urgent is that this is about something that is going to happen — the 2020 election. We have the opportunity to act now to prevent a profoundly destabilizing action, an intervention in our democracy before it happens. I think that is a profoundly urgent action that we need to take right now and everything else is just as serious. All of these transgressions against our democracy are extremely serious, but we are investigating things unfortunately that have already happened. When it comes to Ukraine, we are talking about potentially meddling in the 2020 election that has still yet to happen.”
She added, “This is completely different. What we are talking about here is the president essentially participating in what looks like a series of events that looks like extortion. Withholding aid to an ally and then, quote-unquote, asking for a favor to essentially benefit yourself politically, not in the interest of the United States of America, but in the interest of your own reelection.”
She concluded, “I think the ground has shifted. I don’t believe in making decisions based on polling. I believe in our ability to organize the public, to educate the public, to talk to the public about why not just we as members of Congress must impeach the president but why all people in the United States of America must recognize and understand that we need to put our country first before our considerations of reelection. And that goes from members of Congress all the way up to the president of the United States.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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