Rep. Steve Cohen seeks to impeach President Trump after Charlottesville

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen announced Thursday he will file articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over Trump’s comments about the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va.

The Memphis Democrat acknowledges the Republican control of Congress makes impeachment unlikely in the near future.

Asked at a Memphis news conference if the Republican leadership would allow impeachment hearings soon, Cohen quipped, "I think it's more likely we're going to have snow tomorrow."

However, ongoing investigations, Trump's own behavior, and next year's midterm elections could change the picture, the Congressman told reporters in his Memphis office on the third floor of the federal building Downtown.

Republican Sen. Bob Corker: Trump has not shown 'competence' needed to lead

And he said the events in Charlottesville this past weekend and the president's comments about white supremacists prompted him to act, both as a Jew and as a representative of a majority African-American district.

He said he watched TV coverage of the white supremacist rallies and said it reminded him of Nazi actions against Jews in Germany. "It was every inkling of Kristallnacht," he said, referring to the rash of glass-breaking vandalism and other anti-Jewish attacks that took place on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938. "I couldn't believe it was America."

He said he's convinced that the president is coming for the majority of people in his district.

Articles of impeachment

Reporters pressed him for specifics for what exactly the articles of impeachment would say. He said the "high crimes and misdemeanors" language in the constitution is vague, and impeachment is a political question: in theory, at least, Congress could impeach a president for jaywalking.

But he said ongoing investigations, including Trump's foreign business dealings and firing of former FBI director James Comey, could show proof of specific crimes. And he also argued failure to act against domestic enemies, like white supremacists, is also a crime.

In a statement released earlier, Cohen said, “Instead of unequivocally condemning hateful actions by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Klansmen following a national tragedy, the president said ‘there were very fine people on both sides.’ There are no good Nazis. There are no good Klansmen.”

Trump has “failed the test of moral leadership,” said Cohen, who is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

“No moral president would ever shy away from outright condemning hate, intolerance and bigotry,” he said. “No moral president would ever question the values of Americans protesting in opposition of such actions, one of whom was murdered by one of the white nationalists.”

More: Trump attacks two Republican senators for criticizing his Charlottesville response

Trump is facing a political firestorm for doubling down on his claims that "both sides" were at fault for the violence last weekend in Charlottesville, even after one alleged white nationalist was charged with murder after ramming his car into a crowd of protesters, killing a 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

In a raucous press conference on Tuesday, Trump said that left wing groups were just as violent as white supremacists and declined to say whether one was worse than the other. "You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent," Trump said. "And nobody wants to say that. But I’ll say it right now."

Many lawmakers – Democrats and Republicans – have distanced themselves from Trump's remarks, pointing out that white supremacist groups came armed with guns, torches, and Nazi flags, chanting racist and anti-Jewish slogans.

“President Trump has shown time and time again that he lacks the ethical and moral rectitude to be president of the United States,” Cohen said in the statement.

“Neo-Nazis and the KKK are domestic terrorists,” Cohen said. “If the president can’t recognize the difference between these domestic terrorists and the people who oppose their anti-American attitudes, then he cannot defend us.”

More: Dismayed by President Trump's Charlottesville comments, the White House struggles to move forward

Cohen is not the first member of Congress to move to impeach Trump.

Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Al Green D-Texas, introduced an article of impeachment in June.

Cohen and 23 House Democrats also filed a no confidence resolution against Trump in June, citing a litany of what they say is unacceptable behavior by the president of the United States.

The list included Trump’s questionable business deals, his firing of FBI Director James Comey, his cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his unfettered attacks on the press, his derogatory comments about women’s looks and his Twitter tirades against political opponents and anyone else who challenges him.