Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), who was one of the first members of Congress to call for President Trump’s impeachment, was met with viral praise online after her appearance at a press conference on Tuesday where House Democrats announced articles of impeachment against the president.
Waters’ name surged to the top of Twitter’s top list of trending items on Tuesday morning after she and other Democratic committee leaders held a president conference where they unveiled two articles against Trump, charging him with abuse of his office for political gain and obstruction of Congress.
A number of viral tweets reacting to Waters, who has been voicing support for Trump’s impeachment for more than two years, heaped praised on the congresswoman.
A few conservatives also took aim at the congresswoman’s appearance at the conference, however, arguing the optics made the impeachment process appear more partisan.
The House Democrats’ press conference on Tuesday comes exactly 11 weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the formal launch of an impeachment inquiry into Trump over his business dealings in the Ukraine.
Waters, who is the first African American and woman to chair the House Financial Services Committee, has been calling for the president’s impeachment since 2017, calling him a “con man.”
Shortly after the inquiry’s launch in late September, Waters told Essence magazine in that she was “elated that it appears that day is upon us.”
“As I have stated time and time again, Donald Trump is a dangerous and dishonorable man. He has no respect for our democracy, our Constitution, or the rule of law,” Waters said then. “It is past time that Congress fulfills its Constitutional duty to impeach him.”
Throughout his time in office, Trump has also repeatedly attacked Waters over her criticism of him, calling her “low IQ” — an insult some have condemned as “racist” — and using her as one of his Democratic targets at his campaign rallies.