May 22, 2019 10:04 AM UTC

DeGette, Neguse Reach Tipping Point on Impeachment

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s Justin Wingerter reports, two members of Colorado’s Democratic delegation in Congress, Reps. Diana DeGette and Joe Neguse, have decided after deliberation that the evidence laid out in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation warrants the commencement of impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump:

As impeachment talks again ramp up among congressional Democrats, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse said Tuesday it’s time to open an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, had publicly been mum on impeachment since release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report April 18. He broke that silence in a tweet Tuesday.

“The findings detailed in the special counsel’s report, and the administration’s pattern of wholesale obstruction of Congress since the report’s release, make clear that it is time to open an impeachment inquiry,” the freshman congressman said.

Colorado Independent:

“The facts laid out in the Mueller report, coupled with this administration’s ongoing attempts to stonewall Congress, leave us no other choice: It is time for Congress to officially launch an impeachment inquiry against the President of the United States,” DeGette wrote on Twitter…

DeGette’s and Neguse’s comments came as other House Democrats who have been wary of impeachment also stepped up pressure to take that route following McGahn’s refusal to testify. One House Republican, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, has also called for Trump’s impeachment.

“For quite some time now, the administration has been engaged in a wholesale obstruction of Congress in terms of its ability to conduct oversight and conduct its investigatory work,” Neguse told The Colorado Independent in a brief interview on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

At this point it is clear to most people paying attention that the Mueller report was very far from the “exoneration” the Trump administration has insisted from the beginning it represents. The report exhaustively details ten incidents in which the President almost certainly committed obstruction of justice, only deferring from calling these incidents crimes due to the inability to bring criminal charges against a sitting President. The inability of the Justice Department to criminally charge the President also means Trump can’t clear himself of any conclusive allegations in the report, leaving an unresolved crisis that arguably can only be addressed by Congress in an impeachment proceeding.

While it’s clear that support for impeachment hearings in the House is growing, the end result depends on a number of factors. The highest hurdle, of course, is persuading Senate Republicans to take action against a sitting President from their own party. But for the present in the House, impeachment hearings are more than a political stick to beat the opposition with. The Trump administration’s continuing obstruction since the Mueller report’s release means impeachment hearings could be the only way to get to the truth–regardless of whether the Senate has the political will to convict.

The one thing we can say for certain is that history’s verdict will be much more than the words “no collusion.”