{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/black-caucus-has-had-it-trump-plans-discuss-impeachment", "Black caucus has had it with Trump, plans to discuss impeachment", "2017-09-28", "2017", "2017-09", "Democrat", "House", "NC", "Alma Adams", "A000370", "adams.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The Congressional Black Caucus, a formidable bloc of lawmakers with a big say in the fate of President Donald Trump and his legislation, Monday sent him a terse, clear message: We don't think you understand us at all.\n\t\tThe caucus' chairman Monday urged cancellation of next month\u2019s highly-anticipated meeting between White House officials and leaders of the nation\u2019s historically black colleges. And he plans to have the 49-member caucus meet when Congress returns in two weeks to discuss whether to back Democratic-led efforts to impeach Trump.\n\t\tRep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., the caucus chairman, said the president\u2019s remarks after the deadly August 12 protest in Charlottesville show he has no commitment to the schools or the African American community.\n\t\tRichmond said the caucus was outraged by Trump\u2019s assertion of \u201cblame on both sides\u201d for the violent rally dominated by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.\n\t\t\u201cYou can make an argument based on pure competency and fitness to serve, and that\u2019s the conversation the caucus will have,\u201d Richmond told reporters in a conference call Monday. The caucus includes 46 House Democrats, Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah.\n\t\t\u201cAm I concerned about high crimes and misdemeanors?\u201d Richmond asked. \u201cAbsolutely. Am I concerned about this president\u2019s fitness to serve? Absolutely.\u201d\n\t\tAfrican-American journalist April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks asked President Donald Trump during a press conference on Thursday if he would include the Congressional Black Caucus in conversations about his \u201curban agenda.\u201d He responded with \"Do you want to set up the meeting?\" and \"Are they friends of yours?\"\n\t\tRepublicans control 52 of the Senate\u2019s 100 seats, and 240 of the House\u2019s 435 seats, and there\u2019s been no GOP talk of impeachment.\n\t\tTrump has received heavy criticism both inside and outside of government for not forcefully condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the immediate aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville.\n\t\tHe disbanded two business advisory panels after several of its members, CEOs of top American companies, resigned from the panels following Trump's response to the Charlottesville protest.\n\t\t\n\t\tRichmond said he doesn\u2019t need a CBC group discussion to say that Trump should scrap a National HBCU Week conference that administration officials planned for Sept. 17 to 19 in Washington.\n\t\tThe event is scheduled as a follow-up of sorts to Trump\u2019s HBCU Initiative, a plan he announced with great fanfare in February.\n\t\tThe White House did not respond to a request for comment.\n\t\tTrump signed an executive order for the initiative with more than six dozen black college presidents surrounding him. Its chief aim was to move responsibilities for HBCUs out of the Department of Education and into the White House with an executive director in charge.\n\t\tSix months later, most of the HBCU portfolio remains in the Education Department and an executive director has not been named.\n\t\t\n\t\t\u201cNot only do I think it should be postponed, it shouldn\u2019t have been happening in the first place,\u201d Richmond said. \u201cThis White House isn\u2019t serious about improving our HBCUs\u2026They brought all those HBCU presidents to town, they took a picture in the Oval Office, and then they did nothing.\u201d\n\t\tRep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., was the first lawmaker to call for next month\u2019s meeting to be postponed.\n\t\tShe said last week that because of Trump\u2019s handling of the events in Charlottesville and \u201czero progress on any of (the HBCUs\u2019) priorities, it would be highly unproductive to ask HBCU presidents to come back to Washington.\u201d\n\t\tThe Thurgood Marshall College Fund, an HBCU advocacy group that has been supportive of Trump\u2019s outreach toward the schools, agreed.\n\t\t\u201cThere is pretty strong consensus that the White House should consider postponing\u201d next month\u2019s meeting, Marshall College Fund President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., wrote in a letter Friday to Omarosa Manigault-Newman, director for communications for the White House\u2019s Office of Public Liaison.\n\t\t\n\t\t\tEDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE\n\t\t\n\t\tTaylor said the ability of HBCU leaders to engage with representatives from federal agencies could be \u201covershadowed\u201d by \u201cconcerns related to recent national events, ultimately making the conference counterproductive.\u201d\n\t\tRichmond criticized Manigault-Newman, questioning the value of dealing with the former reality television show celebrity who has served as Trump\u2019s liaison to the African-American community since the 2016 presidential campaign.\n\t\t\u201cOmarosa is still pretending to have influence with this president,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just surprised that she\u2019s there as an African-American woman after his latest comments.\u201d\n\t\tRichmond\u2019s comment reflects the terse relationship between the CBC and Trump. The caucus met with Trump in March. Afterward, Richmond said the CBC and the president shared similar goals but strongly disagreed on \u201cthe route to get there.\u201d\n\t\tThe caucus rejected an invitation by Manigault-Newman for a follow-up meeting with Trump in June because \u201cwe have seen no evidence that your administration acted on our calls for action, and we have in fact witnessed steps that will affirmatively hurt black communities,\u201d Richmond wrote in a letter.\n\t\tAt least three CBC members, Reps. Al Green, D-Texas., Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Gwen Moore, D-Wis., have called for Trump\u2019s impeachment.\n\t\t\u201cFor the sake of the soul of our country,\u201d we must come together to restore our national dignity that has been robbed by Donald Trump\u2019s presence in the White House,\u201d she said last week. \u201cMy Republican friends, I implore you to work with us within our capacity as elected officials to remove this man as our commander-in-chief and help us move forward from this dark period in our nation\u2019s history.\u201d\n\t\tCalifornia Rep. Brad Sherman filed an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, accusing him of obstructing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.\n\t\t  \n\t\t\tRead more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article168465892.html#storylink=cpy\n\t\t  \n\t\t\tRead more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article168465892.html#storylink=cpy\n\t\t  \n\t\t\tRead more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article168465892.html#storylink=cpy\n\t\t\n\t\t  \n\t\t\tRead more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article168465892.html#storylink=cpy", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/black-caucus-has-had-it-trump-plans-discuss-impeachment"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9609349071979523, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}