Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Tuesday renewed her call for President Trump’s impeachment, a day after House Democratic leadership sought to rein in efforts to remove the president.
Waters said Tuesday in a series of tweets that the House must begin impeachment proceedings against Trump by passing a resolution through the House Judiciary Committee to start the process.
“How can you know the enemy Russia is undermining our democracy & say & do nothing? If you don’t care, I do,” Waters tweeted Tuesday. “We must impeach Putin’s president Trump!”
{mosads}Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, was the first elected official to call for Trump’s impeachment and the highest-ranking Democrat to support launching House proceedings into the matter.
She is also leading an investigation through the Financial Services panel into Trump’s finances and potential connections to Russian oligarchs.
Waters said Tuesday that there was “obvious” collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian nationals, and that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report identified several instances of obstruction of justice.
The special counsel’s report, released Thursday, stated that investigators were unable to find sufficient evidence of an illegal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The report also stated investigators were “unable” to say definitively that Trump did not commit an obstruction of justice offense, citing “difficult issues” presented by the evidence.
House Democrats are divided on how respond to Mueller’s report, which revealed a slew of details highlighting Trump’s response to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), have urged caution and warned colleagues against rushing to impeachment ahead of the 2020 election.
Critics of impeachment insist the process would go nowhere in a Republican-controlled Senate and could harm Democratic efforts to defeat Trump at the ballot box.
But Democrats who’ve long called for Trump’s impeachment, including Waters, say the Mueller report contains more than enough reasons to begin the process.
“Mueller kicked the impeachment ball to the Congress. The Constitution gives the responsibility to Congress to impeach an unfit president – ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ What more do we need?” Waters added.