CBC Dem: Resignation is Conyers’s decision

A fellow member of the Congressional Black Caucus said Friday that Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) should undergo an ethics investigation, but stopped short of saying the longest-serving current member of the House should resign.

Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), a member of the caucus that Conyers founded, told CNN on Friday that a resignation from the House would be Conyers’s decision alone.

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“What we want in this watershed moment is accountability,” Lawrence said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“We want transparency of this process in Congress, and we also want due process,” she said. “We need to be focused on how do we change the culture, here, in Congress. How do we have accountability?”

“As we know, Representative Conyers is hospitalized right now,” she added. “Joining the voices of those saying he should resign, I am standing here, very focused, and every single day this week I’ve been in multiple meetings and planning on what do we do to change the culture here in Congress so we’re not in a moment like this where we’re just standing here saying ‘resign, resign.’ “

Conyers was hospitalized on Thursday amid a number of accusations of sexual misconduct in his office.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) later on Thursday called for Conyers to resign.

“The allegations against Congressman Conyers, as we have learned more since Sunday, are serious, disappointing and very credible,” Pelosi said during a briefing in the Capitol. 

“It’s very sad. The brave women who have come forward are owed justice. I pray for Congressman Conyers and his family and wish them well. However, Congressman Conyers should resign,” she said.

Conyers’s lawyer fired back, saying the House speaker did not elect Conyers and would not force him out.

“Nancy Pelosi did not elect the congressman, and she sure as hell won’t be the one to tell the congressman to leave,” attorney Arnold Reed said.

Lawrence’s fellow Congressional Black Caucus member, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), on Thursday also called on Conyers to step down.