House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) invoked President Trump’s tweet on Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg during a hearing to consider articles of impeachment against the president on Thursday.
Trump tweeted earlier in the day in response to a tweet congratulating Thunberg on being named Time’s 2019 Person of the Year: “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
Jeffries raised that tweet when arguing for the impeachment of the president:
This is a president that attacks everybody to distract. He attacks everybody who won’t bend the knee to Donald J. Trump. He attacked John McCain, a war hero. He attacked Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican nominee. He’s attacked Bob Mueller, a Marine and distinguished professional in law enforcement. He attacked your former Speaker Paul Ryan. He attacks Gold Star families. He even attacked today a 16-year-old teenage activist, Greta Thunberg.
“Are you here to defend that as well?” Jeffries asked his Republican colleagues about their arguments that Trump did nothing impeachable.
Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry after a “whistleblower” complaint that said Trump tried to solicit interference from Ukraine in the 2020 elections. They have tried to keep their effort to impeach Trump narrowly focused on Ukraine, which received support from moderate Democrats on the fence about impeachment.
However, some Democrats have long called for Trump’s impeachment on a variety of actions they have deemed offensive, such as Trump’s tweets on members of the Democrat caucus. Jeffries’ mention of Trump’s tweet on Thunberg was reminiscent of those calls.
The Judiciary Committee passed two articles of impeachment against Trump early Friday morning, on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, on a party line vote, with 23 Democrats in favor and all 17 Republicans against.
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