Impeachment effort began before Trump was elected, Democratic congressman says

Democrats have been searching for ways to impeach President Donald Trump since before he was elected, a Democratic congressman said, and the Ukraine situation just happened to be the first thing that gained enough political momentum to pull it off.

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) has submitted articles of impeachment to the House more than once during President Trump's first term — evidence that impeachment was being wielded by Democrats as a political weapon rather than a legitimate constitutional measure against executive misconduct. But attempts to find grounds for impeachment preceded even Election Day.

Green was responding to MSNBC's Chris Hayes asking him to defend himself against Republican accusations that Democrats "reverse engineered" impeachment by searching for a set of facts to fit an impeachment narrative. Instead of refuting that accusation, Green confirmed its accuracy.

"Well, the genesis of impeachment, to be very candid with you, was when the president was running for office," Green told Hayes on Monday before going on to list numerous Republicans who have been critical of the president in the past. "With those things in mind and with the president's behavior before us, firing Mr. [James] Comey who was investigating the intrusion of Russia into his campaign, our election, that was something that was not to be tolerated.

"And the president has continued to try to thwart the efforts of Congress to investigate with Mr. [Robert] Mueller. The president, by and through his White House counsel, tried to get this done again to deal with Mr. Mueller to extricate him, to remove him from the process."

Al Green Say Genesis of Impeachment Was When Trump Was First Running For Officeyoutu.be

Green's transparency about Democrats' partisan weaponization of impeachment, as well as his openness to impeaching President Trump again later for some expected future offense(s), undermines claims by party leaders such as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who have tried to emphasize how reluctant they have been to move forward with impeachment.

(H/T: The Daily Wire)