O’Rourke joins calls to impeach Trump

Former congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) is voicing support for beginning impeachment proceedings against President Trump. 

“We’re finally learning the truth about this president. And yes, there has to be consequences. Yes, there has to be accountability. Yes, I think there’s enough evidence now for the House of Representatives to move forward with impeachment,” O’Rourke said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News published on Saturday. 

{mosads}“This is our country, and this is the one chance that we get to ensure that it remains a democracy and that no man, regardless of his position, is above the law.”

O’Rourke openly supported impeachment while running unsuccessfully for a Texas Senate seat. But he also voted twice against moving toward impeachment proceedings, The Dallas Morning News noted. 

O’Rourke said in March that the 2020 election may be the best way to remove Trump from office. 

“I think the American people are going to have a chance to decide this at the ballot box in November 2020, and perhaps that’s the best way for us to resolve these outstanding questions,” he said at the time. 

But O’Rourke told The Dallas Morning News that Trump should face impeachment, saying he has put the nation’s democracy at risk. He added that Trump “welcomed the participation of a foreign power into our election, that sought to sway that election in his favor” and “clearly obstructed justice in firing the principal investigator,” a reference to former FBI Director James Comey. 

“[Though] lying and dissembling and creating such a climate of fear within the White House and government … he almost got away with it,” O’Rourke said.  

Impeachment has become a divisive issue among Democrats running for president, with some voicing support and others warning that it could have detrimental consequences. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for Trump’s impeachment after special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who launched his 2020 campaign last month, said that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings if the White House works to block Democrats from its efforts to investigate the president.