The bulk of the House Democratic caucus voted down an effort to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump on Tuesday, joining a unified House GOP.
Led by Rep. Al Green, dozens of House Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted on Tuesday in favor of beginning an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, a move which numerous Democrats as well as Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, said was unconstitutional.
But the majority of their caucus was against such a response to the announcement of U.S. involvement in Israel’s war against Iran, which many Democrats have seemingly not been able to condemn outright.
Many instead have attacked the president for the sudden nature of the strikes and lack of congressional oversight, shying away from total condemnation of the effort to knock out Iran’s nuclear program at the same time.
On Tuesday, the impeachment inquiry vote was defeated, with 128 Democrats joining all present House Republicans in voting it down.
Lacking support from House or Senate Democratic leadership for the move, Ocasio-Cortez nevertheless floated the idea of filing articles of impeachment over the president’s order to attack Iran on Saturday evening, minutes after the White House announced the U.S. airstrikes.
“He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” wrote the congresswoman.
The tweet provoked a furious response from the president, who lashed out at Ocasio-Cortez and her party in a lengthy rant posted to Truth Social on Tuesday: “Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the ’dumbest’ people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment.”
“Alexandria should go back home to Queens, where I was also brought up, and straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime ridden streets, in the District she “represents,” and which she never goes to anymore,” the president continued.
The congresswoman fired back in her own pair of tweets, remarking in conclusion that “I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully.”
While Ocasio-Cortez has grown closer to party leadership during her time in Congress (after joining as an bomb-throwing freshman who ousted a top-ranking Democrat in a stunning primary upset), Tuesday’s vote is emblematic of her status as a figure of the party’s left-wing backbencher faction.
It’s the second time this year that progressives have brushed up against moderate members of leadership over the intensity of their opposition to Trump — the first occurring during the president address to a joint session of Congress this spring.
The Bronx congresswoman was defeated in a bid to be the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee late last year, being passed up instead for the late Rep. Gerry Connolly.
Supporters of the progressive firebrand argued that Connolly, stricken with cancer and in his 70s, lacked the energy and vigor to be a visible force of opposition to the president; he died in the position earlier this year.
Ocasio-Cortez announced that she would not seek his position upon his death, commenting at the time that the party still valued seniority over other, more relevant qualifications.
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