‘The president is the smoking gun:’ How Seattle Democrat argued for Trump’s impeachment
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the first South Asian American woman ever to serve in Congress, reached back to her roots this week to help explain why she voted for articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
The Washington Democrat grew up in India, Indonesia and Singapore, and came to this U.S. to attend Georgetown University.
The House next week will consider two articles of impeachment, one saying Trump abused his power and the other saying he engaged in obstruction of Congress. Jayapal joined other Judiciary Committee Democrats Friday in approving each article of impeachment on party-line 23-17 votes.
A major flashpoint has been Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump urged Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Earlier, Trump had blocked the release of military aid to Ukraine.
Jayapal spent three days this week debating and voting on impeachment, joining her Democratic colleagues as they fought Republicans.
“To my friend, Ms. Jayapal, there is simply no evidence of any condition,” said Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, of the Democrats’ description of the July 25 call.
Jayapal represents a Seattle-area district that hasn’t had a Republican congressman in over 40 years, a district Democrat Hillary Clinton won in 2016 with 82% of the vote.
“My constituents have felt this president has abused his power for a long time and so obviously my district is very supportive of this. People really followed the trial very closely,” she told McClatchy Friday.
She has called for impeachment hearings since May, two months before Trump’s call to Zelensky. At the time, she said Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election provided enough evidence for the House to open its own investigation.
One of 14 immigrants in Congress
At the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Jayapal reached back to her history to explain part of her thinking.
“My parents made the ultimate sacrifice of placing an ocean between them and their beloved child – because they believed America was worth it,” Jayapal told the Judiciary Committee. “Nearly two decades later, I raised my hand and swore my oath to country and Constitution for the first time when I became a citizen of the greatest nation on earth.”
One of 14 naturalized citizens in Congress, Jayapal noted how for those such as her, “being an American is a conscious choice and a granted privilege, a dream we chase across deserts and seas to join the larger American story: One of generations overcoming every challenge and every obstacle — because America is worth it.”
She talked about how she saw this country.
“The Framers believed in the promise of America, but they also knew the dangers of power unchecked,” she said. “And so, they gifted us the Constitution of the United States, the protective and connective tissue that functions as the highest law of our land — and which entrusts this body, the people’s House, the solemn responsibility to hold the executive accountable. And that is what we confront today.”
Jayapal had spent much of the past three days helping to argue the legal case against Trump as she and other Democrats faced fierce Republican opposition.
Debating with Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan
When Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, on Thursday methodically explained why he found Trump committed no impeachable offenses, and noted “Heck, I don’t know any political party that doesn’t think when the other side’s in the White House that they abuse power,” Jayapal fired back.
“If your argument is that he was so concerned about Ukraine that he released aid in 2017 and 2018, then why in 2019 after the Department of Defense cleared Ukraine on charges of corruption, why then did he decide he was so concerned about corruption that he was not going to release aid?” Jayapal asked.
“Because of evidence,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, started to say.
Jayapal, still trying to make a point, would not let him finish.
Jordan persisted.
“They got a new president, that’s why,” he said.
Jayapal fired back that President Zelensky “was known to be an anti-corruption fighter.”
Other Republicans tried to take her on.
“President Trump wanted to ensure that the American taxpayer funded security assistance would not be squandered by what has been reported as the third most corrupt nation in the world before Zelensky,” Louisiana’s Johnson told her.
Jayapal was hardly swayed.
“The facts are clear: Donald Trump abused the power of the Office of the Presidency to pursue his own personal, political gain. And leveraged critically needed, congressionally approved military aid to coerce a fragile, foreign ally to interfere in our elections,” she said.
“This is not hearsay. The president was the first and best witness in this case. The president admitted to his wrongdoing and corrupt intent on national television. The president is the smoking gun,” she said.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 1:20 PM.
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