During an interview on Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said there are "so many" reasons to impeach President Trump, except she struggled to name them. She could say things like "financial fraud" or "pay to play" but not references anything in particular.
Michal Isikoff, Yahoo News' Chief Investigative Correspondent: This relates to the president, who was reported this week, told the head of customs and border protection that he would pardon him if he faced jail for denying entry to migrants. Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) of the House Judiciary Committee said this shows the president's contempt for the law and it was for the president to suggest that goal by deliberately seeking to break the law is unforgivable. I'm assume you agree with him [Nadler]. The question is what should be the consequences?
Ocasio-Cortez: I mean, I think this is largely a part, largely a question for leadership. I think this is a very grave problem but there's so many aspects to this presidency that have posed a grave problem.
Isikoff: Is it impeachable in your view?
Ocasio-Cortez: I think you could reach in a bag and pull so many things out that are impeachable of this president. I support impeaching this president.
Isikoff: Well, your colleague, Congresswoman Tlaib, she's introduced a resolution to impeach. Have you signed on? Are you signed on?
Ocasio-Cortez: We hadn't signed on when it was first introduced but we probably will.
Daniel Klaidman, Yahoo News Editor-In-Chief: You think you will?
Ocasio-Cortez: Yeah. There's just so many things.
Isikoff: What would be your top three, if you were drafting the articles of impeachment?
Ocasio-Cortez: The top three? Well, I think number one is emoluments. I think it’s always been emoluments. It’s always been about that for me.
Isikoff: Two and three?
Ocasio-Cortez: Two and three? Uh...I think two would be tax fraud. And number three would be... Uh... Man... Number three, I mean, if there's an investigation on this, I think this is pretty potent as well.
Isikoff: Interesting that you don't mention Russia in the top three.
Ocasio-Cortez: No, no. I don't.
Isikoff: Because...?
Ocasio-Cortez: Because I think that, I think that for a lot of aspects of the Russia investigation, as we saw with the Mueller report, is that A) I think that there are a lot of parts to the Russia issue that comes down to emoluments. It comes down to pay for play, financial transactions, Trump Tower. It comes down to money. If we had gotten something from the Mueller report then I'd probably put that up there as number one. But I feel like it's a little risky to put the entire grounds of impeachment, all your eggs, in that basket, when I think a lot of this stuff happens back door bank accounts and things like that. I think emoluments kind of includes any misconduct, financial misconduct.
Klaidman: And, specifically on tax fraud, what do you have in mind? Is there something specific, like the deflating assets or the insurance issue, the things you brought up when you questioned Michael Cohen?
Ocasio-Cortez: Yeah. I agree. I think it comes down to that. There's just so much. Like the census. I can't even. The tax bill. It's like... it's like so much.
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So, people like Ocasio-Cortez want to impeach President Trump? Got it. They believe he did something wrong? Okay. But they can't name specifics? Figures.
The reality is Democrats hate Trump because he's not afraid to call them on their crap. He's not the typical refined politician that people are accustomed to. Trump has changed the world of politics and Democrats have no idea how to play the game he's king of. They don't like him personally or professionally so they always resort to impeachment.
"If Trump does ___ we'll impeach him."
"Trump said ___ so he should be impeached."
"Can you believe what Trump did now? That's impeachable."
They throw around the word impeach so much that it's starting to have very little weight and very little meaning. When a president is impeached it's because he or she did something horrible not because you hate the guy for failing to be politically correct.
Americans knew what they were getting when they voted for Trump. They wanted something different. They saw something different in him. The more the Democrats continue to flap their gums about why Trump should be impeached the more they're sealing their fate and his victory, for that matter.
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