Impeach Trump: Democrat who vowed to 'impeach the mother****ker announces plans to file resolution against president

Detroit congresswoman's move unlikely to gain much traction

The Democrat who told supporters she intended to impeach “mother****er” Donald Trump, has announced plans to file an impeachment resolution against the president.

Rashida Tlaib, the newly elected congresswoman from Michigan, in January made headlines when she was recorded using the impolite language in a speech at an event for supporters. Mr Trump said her words were “disgraceful and disrespectful” to the country.

On Wednesday, the congresswomen doubled down on her plans, holding a press conference to announce she would soon file an impeachment resolution.

Such a resolution marks the start of the process in which members of the House of Representatives can seek to impeach a president, and where the process against Bill Clinton began two decades ago.

“Later on this month, I will be joining folks and advocates across the country to file the impeachment resolution to start the impeachment proceedings,” said Mr Tlaib. “I think every single colleague of mine agrees there’s impeachable offences. That’s one thing that we all agree on. We may disagree on the pace.”

She added: “It’s really important that the president of the United States is investigated in violations of the United States constitution.”

Observers said they did not expect Ms Tlaib’s resolution to make much progress. Other resolutions, introduced under the Republican-controlled House by Democratic congressmen Al Green and Brad Sherman, went nowhere.

Even with the House now controlled by the Democrats, the resolution is not expected to progress far because the Democratic leadership headed by Nancy Pelosi has urged her party to allow its own committee investigations of Mr Trump be completed before they turn to impeachment.

“I think this is a a problem for Nancy Pelosi because she knows the Republicans are going to use this to fund-raise in 2020,” Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College in New York, told The Independent. “Republicans will say ‘Look at these crazy Democrats trying to impeach the president’.”

Ahead of the 2018 midterms, Ms Pelosi gave instructions to candidates to talk about issues such as health care and the economy rather than impeachment, to avoid being divisive. Her strategy paid off.

Ms Pelosi, now the speaker, recently told Rolling Stone magazine impeachment could be “disruptive”. She is also aware of the electoral backlash suffered by Republicans after they sought to impeach Mr Clinton in 1998, a move that a portion of the public viewed as politically motivated.

“It’s an opportunity cost in terms of time and resources,” Ms Pelosi said. “You don’t want to go down that path unless it is unavoidable.”

Mike Fraioli, a veteran Democratic strategist based in Washington DC, said he believed the leadership of the party would now be talking with Ms Tlaib and urging her to wait until either its own probes were completed, or at least special counsel Robert Mueller had published his report.

“Remember, these committee investigations are being done very thoroughly and with very professional staffs,” he said.