Sen. Elizabeth Warren became the most prominent Democrat and first 2020 presidential candidate to call on the House to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon.
Warren made her case a day after the Justice Department released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report, which did not find sufficient evidence to accuse the president of conspiring with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.
But, Warren points out, Mueller did not come to a conclusion on whether Trump illegally obstructed justice in his handling of the investigation and explicitly names Congress' authority to investigate and hold the president accountable in this situation.
Warren argued that if Democrats don't conduct impeachment proceedings over Trump's conduct in office, that would give carte blanche to future presidents to commit impeachable offenses.
"To ignore a President's repeated efforts to obstruct an investigation into his own disloyal behavior would inflict great and lasting damage on this country, and it would suggest that both the current and future Presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways," she wrote.
She went on: "The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States."
The Mueller report lays out facts showing that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election to help Donald Trump and Donald Trump welcomed that help. Once elected, Donald Trump obstructed the investigation into that attack.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019
Democrats are torn over the politics of impeachment — a division on display on Thursday when Democrats delivered contradictory responses on the subject following the release of Mueller's Russia report.
Democratic leadership is not calling to begin impeachment proceedings.
"As the Speaker has said repeatedly, one step at a time. We're focused on getting the full unredacted version of the report and its underlying documents – as well as hearing from Mueller. The report raises more questions and concerns that we believe the American people deserve answers to," a spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC News on Friday.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler told CNN's Dana Bash on Friday morning that "it's way too early to speculate about [impeachment]."
But many on the party's left flank are more enthusiastic about moving forward on impeachment.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who made headlines with her January call to "impeach the motherf--ker," submitted an impeachment resolution in late March asking the House Judiciary Committee to begin investigating whether Trump committed impeachable offenses.
And progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez signed onto Tlaib's resolution on Thursday after the report's release.
"I don't know how you can read this report and not conclude that an impeachment inquiry is warranted," former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau wrote in a viral tweeton Thursday.
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