House Democrat explains decision to back impeachment: ‘We’ve crossed a Rubicon’

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), one of several House Democrats who had not taken a position on impeachment proceedings before the allegations of a whistleblower complaint involving President Trump’s call to Ukraine’s president were revealed last week, explained how the revelation changed her mind Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“It’s not because I didn’t think there were really unpresidential behavior by this president from moment one, but because I was worried that it would get us sidetracked from other, more important items for the American people,” Sewell told CBS’ Margaret Brennan. “But I do believe that we’ve crossed a Rubicon here.”

{mosads}“I do believe that this whistleblower allegation is so serious that it gets to the very heart of our nation’s democracy, the integrity of our elections, and if any congressional district understands that, it’s my district,” which includes the city of Selma, an epicenter of civil rights activism in the 1960s, Sewell said.

.@RepTerriSewell on why she changed her mind on impeachment: “I was worried it would get us sidetracked,” but I do believe we’ve crossed a rubicon.” pic.twitter.com/c7xlI26naA

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 29, 2019

The whistleblower complaint alleges that Trump attempted to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter by threatening to make military aid from Ukraine conditional on such a probe.

Asked by Brennan how quickly she anticipated the House moving from the announced impeachment inquiry to developing articles of impeachment, Sewell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said her own committee was “working diligently through this Rosh Hashanah break and we don’t know exactly when it will come but we do know that we are working in a deliberate, thoughtful manner.”