(CNN) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday put the onus on Republicans to take a stand following the kickoff of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and Ukraine.

"Right now what Republicans have to do is decide what their role is going to be in the scope of history," the New York Democrat told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview on "The Situation Room" after the televised hearing. "Because we will look back at this time and really, truly examine the moral decisions that each member of Congress has decided to make."

Trump could become just the third impeached president in American history. Congress has conducted two presidential impeachment trials : President Andrew Johnson in 1868, for firing a Cabinet secretary without the consent of Congress, and President Bill Clinton in 1998, for perjury and obstruction of justice. Both Johnson and Clinton were acquitted, so they stayed in office.

Asked by Blitzer whether it will hurt Democrats politically if they can't persuade any Republicans that Trump's behavior reaches the threshold for impeachable conduct, Ocasio-Cortez said she wasn't "overly concerned" by the prospect.

"I'm actually not overly concerned about this because I think the whole point of our public hearings is to present these facts to the public and to let the general public really see the facts for themselves and to understand why we have chosen to move forward with the impeachment inquiry," she said.

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