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Vol. 32, Issue 3 BROOKLYN EDITION January 15-21, 2021
IMPEACHED AGAIN
Caribbean American congresswoman votes for Trump’s second impeachment
By Nelson A. King
Caribbean American Congresswoman
Yvette D. Clarke voted on
Wednesday with her Democratic
colleagues and 10 Republicans to
impeach for the second time US
President Donald J. Trump.
In a vote of 232 to 197, the US
House of Representatives voted
to impeach Trump for inciting
an insurrection, eight days ago,
against the United States through
encouraging his supporters to
attack the US Capitol. “Today, I
rise in support of H. Res. (24), the
Article of Impeachment against
Donald J. Trump for high crimes
and misdemeanors for a second
time,” said Clarke, the daughter
of Jamaican immigrants, who
represents the 9th Congressional
District in Brooklyn, on the floor
on the House of Representatives.
“Let me be very clear, what
took place on January 6, 2021,
was an act of domestic terrorism
by right wing sycophantic white
supremacists, promoted, instigated
and advanced by the man in
the White House, Donald Trump,”
she added, invoking the words of
slain US civil rights leader, the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“’The ultimate weakness of violence
is that it is a descending
spiral, begetting the very thing it
seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing
evil, it multiplies it.’
“Instead of focusing on that
beacon of hope, we are here
again,” Clarke continued. “We
did not enter into this lightly.
And on behalf of the constituents
of the 9th Congressional
District of New York, I will vote
yes, Madam Speaker, to impeach
Donald J Trump. Talk about déjà
vu (already seen in French).”
On Monday, Clarke joined
Democratic calls for US Vice President
Michael R. Pence to convene
and mobilize the principal officers
of the executive departments
of the Cabinet to activate section
4 of the 25th Amendment to the
US Constitution to declare Trump
incapable of executing the duties
of his office and to immediately
exercise powers as acting president.
“Madam Speaker, today I rise
in support of H. Res.21, calling on
Vice President Pence to invoke the
25th Amendment,” she said on
the House floor. “Five Americans
died due to this violent attack,
and more than 50 Capitol police
officers were seriously injured.”
The congresswoman said
Trump “continues to have blood
on his hands,” adding that the
attack against the United States
Government “will forever stain
our nation’s history.
“Despite what Donald Trump
and his supporters are now saying,
he fomented this violence
and incensed his supporters by
using social media to call for the
insurrection,” she said.
Clarke noted that Trump spoke
at a rally, just before the attack on
the US Capitol Building by pro-
Trump supporters, urging them
to “march on the Capitol” and
“fight.”
She said Trump then “blatantly
ignored pleas to call off
his mob.
“While this is certainly not
the first time the 25th Amendment
should have been invoked
to protect America from the
ineptitude and vile cruelty of
Donald J. Trump, but for the
sake of our democracy, I pray
that it will be the last,” she said.
“He must be removed.”
Clarke’s New York Democratic
colleague Hakeem Jeffries, who
represents parts of Brooklyn and
Queens that are heavily populated
with Caribbean nationals,
said while he did not come to the
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) shows the article of impeachment against U.S.
President Donald Trump after signing it in an engrossment ceremony, at the U.S. Capitol in
Washington Jan. 13, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Congress to impeach Trump,
“the constitutional crimes by an
out-of-control president, inspired
by his hatred and the big lie that
he told, cannot be ignored.
“Donald Trump is a living,
breathing impeachable offense,”
said Jeffries, who represents
the 8th Congressional District
in New York, on the House
floor, before voting to impeach
Trump. “It is what it is. The violent
attack on the US Capitol was
an act of insurrection incited by
Donald Trump.
“He is a clear and present
danger to the health, safety
and well-being of the American
people, and that is why this
impeachment is necessary on
the House floor for a second
time with a bipartisan majority,”
added Jeffries, chairman of the
House Democratic Caucus.
“Violence will not win, insurrection
will not win, sedition
will not win, terror will not win,
lawlessness will not win, mob
rule will not win – not today, not
tomorrow, not ever,” he continued.
“Democracy will prevail.”
Immediately after the House
vote to impeach Trump, New York
City Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, the son of Grenadian
immigrants, said “there has
never been a president more
deserving of the distinction of
having been impeached twice,
or less deserving of the office
he still occupies until either the
Senate acts courageously to convict
him or his term expires,
than Donald Trump.
“We are not safe with Donald
Trump in the Presidency,”
he said. “It was true four years
ago, and it is acutely, intensely,
urgently true today.
“He has incited domestic
terror; not only through his
actions over the course of one
day but over four years,” Williams
added.
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