Progressives Tell Pelosi Now Is the Time to Impeach

Pressure is mounting on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make moves towards impeachment, as Democrats’ frustration reaches a peak—even accusing their colleague of emboldening the president by refusing to stand up to what they see as lawless behavior.

Reports that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival were confirmed by the President. He acknowledged on Sunday that he raised corruption accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter during a phone call with Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelensky—but claimed there was no quid pro quo.

“Reports of a reliable whistleblower complaint regarding the President’s communications with a foreign leader raise grave, urgent concerns for our national security,” Pelosi said in a Sept. 20 statement. As she called out the Trump administration for stonewalling the whistleblower complaint, Heidi Hess, co-director of Credo Action, told Common Dreams that “it’s awfully bold of Speaker Pelosi to call out stonewalling tactics when she herself has stonewalled impeachment efforts for the past eight months.”

Other progressive groups and members of Pelosi’s own House Democratic caucus similarly called her out for refusing to make efforts to corral the President. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted on Saturday, “It is one thing for a sitting president to break the law. It’s another to let him.”

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) asked “Colleagues in Congress: if this isn’t impeachable abuse of power, what is?” on Twitter Friday afternoon, concluding, “Time to do our job!”