{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-introduce-articles-impeachment-against-president", "Ranking Member Cohen to Introduce Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald Trump After Comments on Charlottesville", "2017-08-17", "2017", "2017-08", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  \n\tContact: Michael Eisenstatt  \n\t202.225.3265  \n\tAugust 17, 2017\n\u00a0\u00a0\nRanking Member Cohen to Introduce Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald Trump After Comments on Charlottesville \n[WASHINGTON, D.C.] \u2014 Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today announced that he will be introducing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump following the President\u2019s comments on the horrific events in Charlottesville, Virginia.\n\u201cI have expressed great concerns about President Trump\u2019s ability to lead our country in the Resolution of No Confidence (H.Res. 456) that I introduced in July with 29 of my colleagues; however, after the President\u2019s comments on Saturday, August 12 and again on Tuesday, August 15 in response to the horrific events in Charlottesville, I believe the President should be impeached and removed from office. Instead of unequivocally condemning hateful actions by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Klansmen following a national tragedy, the President said \u2018there were very fine people on both sides.\u2019 There are no good Nazis. There are no good Klansmen.\u201d \n\u201cWe fought a World War to defeat Nazis, and a Civil War to defeat the Confederacy.\u00a0 In reaction to the downfall of the Confederacy, and the subsequent passage of the Reconstruction Amendments to our constitution, the KKK embarked on a dastardly campaign to terrorize and intimidate African Americans from exercising their newly acquired civil rights.\u00a0 Subsequent incarnations of the Klan continued to terrorize African Americans with lynchings and civil rights murders such as the assassination of Medgar Evers and the killings of Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman and other civil rights workers.\u201d\n\u201cWhen I watched the videos from the protests in Charlottesville, it reminded me of the videos I\u2019ve seen of Kristallnacht in 1938 in Nazi Germany. It appeared that the Charlottesville protesters were chanting \u2018Jews will not replace us\u2019 and \u2018blood and soil,\u2019 an infamous Nazi slogan, as they marched with torches that conjured up images of Klan rallies. None of the marchers spewing such verbiage could be considered \u2018very fine people\u2019 as the President suggested. And it certainly appeared the participants were in lock-step. Some of the white nationalist protesters were interviewed by the media, such as Sean Patrick Nielsen. He said one of his three reasons for being there was \u2018killing Jews.\u2019 Another was Christopher Cantwell, one of the white nationalist leaders, who said he couldn\u2019t watch \u2018that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl\u2019 and said he hoped \u2018somebody like Donald Trump, but who does not give his daughter to a Jew,\u2019 would lead this country. As a Jew and as an American and as a representative of an African American district, I am revolted by the fact that the President of the United States couldn\u2019t stand up and unequivocally condemn Nazis who want to kill Jews and whose predecessors murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, and could not unequivocally condemn Klansmen whose organization is dedicated to terrorizing African Americans. \n\u201cPresident Trump has failed the presidential test of moral leadership. No moral president would ever shy away from outright condemning hate, intolerance and bigotry. 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. Senator John McCain rightfully tweeted this week that there was \u2018no moral equivalency between racists and Americans standing up to defy hate.\u2019 Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, \u201cVery important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.\u201d President Trump has shown time and time again that he lacks the ethical and moral rectitude to be President of the United States. Not only has he potentially obstructed justice and potentially violated the Constitution\u2019s Foreign Emoluments Clause, but he has also shown that he is incapable or unwilling to protect Americans from enemies, foreign and domestic. Neo-Nazis and the KKK are domestic terrorists. If the President can\u2019t recognize the difference between these domestic terrorists and the people who oppose their anti-American attitudes, then he cannot defend us.\u201d\nMartin Niem\u00f6ller, a prominent Protestant pastor who was an outspoken critic of Adolph Hitler, said: \n\u00a0\nFirst they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out\u2014\n\tBecause I was not a Socialist.  \n\t\u00a0\nThen they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out\u2014\u00a0\n\tBecause I was not a Trade Unionist.  \n\t\u00a0\nThen they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out\u2014\n\tBecause I was not a Jew.  \n\t\u00a0\nThen they came for me\u2014and there was no one left to speak for me.  \n\t\u00a0\n\u201cThey have come for me, and for the majority of my Congressional constituency. Accordingly, I must speak out today after what happened on Saturday and our President\u2019s subsequent response. It is morally and legally incumbent upon me, based on my oath of office, to introduce articles of impeachment.\u201d\u00a0 \n\u00a0\n###", 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://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/ranking-member-cohen-introduce-articles-impeachment-against-president"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9178789332509041, "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"}