Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee joined growing calls among their colleagues for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to take steps to impeach President Trump for his actions before the U.S. Capitol was attacked by a mob of his supporters.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chair of the panel, led a letter sent to Pelosi on Friday calling for the president’s impeachment, saying it was the duty of the Foreign Affairs to project U.S. global leadership on democracy and the rule of law.
“There is a foreign policy imperative to hold the President accountable for his actions—we must demonstrate to the world that no one in America is above the law and counter our adversaries’ propaganda that democracy is a failed system,” Meeks wrote in a letter signed by all 24 Democratic members of the panel.
“The Constitution demands that we, as members of the House of Representatives, use every tool at our disposal to safeguard our country and our democracy during this perilous time by holding to account those who would do them harm. That tool is impeachment,” he added.
The call by the Democratic members of the Foreign Affairs panel follows a separate letter endorsed by dozens of Democrats calling on the Pelosi to reconvene the House and exercise legislative avenues to hold the president accountable.
Trump has been widely condemned by lawmakers and global leaders for stoking tensions after he encouraged his supporters at a Wednesday rally in Washington, D.C., to march to the Capitol and protest against Congress’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Following Trump’s remarks, a mob of his supporters breached Capitol security, broke windows, vandalized lawmakers’ offices and temporarily delayed Congress carrying out the certification of election results.
However, Biden’s victory was certified in the early hours Thursday morning after Congress reconvened.
U.S. global allies expressed shock and alarm at the violence taking place in Washington and American adversaries seized on the chaos to undermine U.S. global standing.
About 100 diplomats reportedly signed onto a dissent cable calling for the State Department to explicitly denounce Trump’s role in the attack as “critical” to communicate to the world that no one, including the president, is above U.S. law.