Al Green: ‘Unfit President Ought to Be Impeached’

Rep. Al Green (D-TX) said on the House floor on Wednesday that he will focus on impeaching the “unfit president” while his colleagues work on actual legislative issues.

“I rise, Madam Speaker, on behalf of Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution,” Green said. “I rise, Madam Speaker, on behalf of the more than 40% of people in this country who believe that an unfit president ought to be impeached. I rise on behalf of the many people who believe that somehow the voices of those who favor impeachment have been muted. And I want you to know, Madam Speaker, and to those who are listening, I want you to know there is at least one person in the Congress of the United States of America who believes that an unfit president ought to be impeached.”

Green, who introduced articles of impeachment against Trump last year, said he was also speaking for those “who believe that if President Barack Obama had behaved the way the current president has behaved, he would have been impeached.”

Saying that more than 40% of Americans and 80% of Democrats want impeachment, Green said he was also speaking “on behalf of people that believe there is a humanitarian crisis at the border. The many people who believe that babies ought not be confined in small confined places where they have to trip over each other if they want to traverse from one side of the room to the other.”

Green also said that if the migrant children “were white babies, the response would be vastly different.”

“We know that we would not tolerate what is happening in this humanitarian crisis… if these were not people of color. We wouldn’t tolerate it if they were white. We ought to treat all babies the same,” Green said.

Green said other lawmakers could work on other issues, and he will continue to focus on impeachment because of the Trump’s bigotry.

“We know that this president is a bigot, and we know that this policy at the border is rooted in bigotry,” Green said. “Mr. Speaker—Madam Speaker, I want you to know that this will not be my last time standing in the well of the congress to deal with this issue. Let others do what they may. Take on the issues that you choose, but know that I believe an unfit president ought to be impeached and we ought not have a double standard such as we treat people of color differently from the way we treat people not of color.”

Green claimed “that’s what’s happening right now at the border” because if migrants “were coming in from the north and they were white, the reaction wouldn’t be the same. The fervor would be greater. The demand for justice would be greater. We have to take a stand against bigotry. We cannot allow it to continue to grow in this country. We are the place where the president is to be brought before the bar of justice. Only the house of representatives can do it. I declare this day that impeachment is not dead.”

The Texas Democrat has been one of the most vocal proponents of impeachment, arguing that Trump could be impeached because of the migrant children who have died after crossing the border and the “bigotry” emanating from the White House.

“You produce a work product that is harmful to African countries. That’s a link between his bigoted commentary and policy that has been produced. Policy rooted in bigotry,” Green said last year at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. “Then children on the border of color…. You produce a policy that separates them from their parents. When I add all of this together, a person who is placing his bigotry into policy that is harmful to our society. And for that he ought to be impeached.”