Tlaib declares Dems will impeach Trump

By: Ken Coleman - January 4, 2019 3:50 pm

Rashida Tlaib (left) and Donald Trump (right)

Updated, 11:20 a.m.

Hours after she was sworn in on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) wasted no time in voicing her intention regarding President Donald Trump.

The Democrat who hails from southwest Detroit during an event for the progressive group MoveOn.org in Washington, D.C., reportedly declared:

“We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!”

Raucous reception for @RashidaTlaib at MoveOn reception near the Hill. Her closing remarks: “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker.”

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 3, 2019

Tlaib, a former state House member, has challenged Trump in the past. In August 2016 at Detroit’s Cobo Center, she joined a group demonstrating when Trump unveiled his domestic economic policy plan during a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club. Tlaib and about one dozen others were forcibly escorted out of the ballroom.

Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib tells cheering crowd that Trump impeachment coming

“We’re going to go in and impeach the motherfucker” pic.twitter.com/oQJYqR78IA

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 3, 2019

In a Detroit Free Press op-ed published this week Tlaib, who represents Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, and John Bonifaz, co-founder and president of Free Speech For People, wrote: “We already have overwhelming evidence that the president has committed impeachable offenses.”

Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress. She and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) are the first Muslim women to join the body.

Denzel McCampbell, Tlaib’s communications director issued a statement: “Congresswoman Tlaib was elected to shake up Washington, not continue with the status quo. Donald Trump is completely unfit to serve as President. The Congresswoman absolutely believes he needs to be impeached.”

Tlaib also posted two tweets this morning that appear to allude to her statement on Thursday.

I will always speak truth to power. <ahref=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/unapologeticallyMe?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#unapologeticallyMe

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 4, 2019

This is not just about Donald Trump. This is about all of us. In the face of this constitutional crisis, we must rise.

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 4, 2019

This story has been updated to include a video of the event and a statement from Tlaib’s office.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.

Ken Coleman

Ken Coleman covers Southeast Michigan, economic justice and civil rights. He is a former Michigan Chronicle senior editor and served as the American Black Journal segment host on Detroit Public Television. He has written and published four books on black life in Detroit, including Soul on Air: Blacks Who Helped to Define Radio in Detroit and Forever Young: A Coleman Reader. His work has been cited by the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, History Channel and CNN. Additionally, he was an essayist for the award-winning book, Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies. Ken has served as a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party, Detroit Public Schools, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters and U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence. Previously to joining the Advance, he worked for the Detroit Federation of Teachers as a communications specialist. He is a Historical Society of Michigan trustee and a Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit advisory board member.