None of us can afford to be on the sidelines right now. If we don’t keep pushing to hold Donald Trump accountable, future leaders will be further emboldened to abuse their power, harm our communities, violate our rights, and shred up our democracy.

Last weekend, thousands of Americans took to the streets demanding the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump from office. In cities and towns all across the country—in my home state of Michigan, as well as Colorado, Arizona, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Utah, California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Florida, and more—we joined together and showed the strength of our movement.

As Congress pushes ahead with this critical impeachment inquiry, activists across the country are organizing.

(If you can’t make the call, sign up anyway and grassroots group By the People will send you the recording.)

As the incredible Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, a powerful force for justice and a dear friend and mentor, who sadly passed away this week, said:

Rep. Cummings was right. This is what’s at stake right now. And as you may have heard me say, change happens not only in the halls of Congress, but in the streets. In fact, most of the time, the change we make happen in Congress is only possible because of the work that grassroots activists put in.

That’s why I’ve been working hand-in-hand with activists and organizations, ever since first introducing a congressional resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry this spring.

Grassroots groups are coordinating Sunday’s mass call for impeachment, which will also feature the bold activists who disrupted last week’s Trump rally in Louisiana by unveiling an #ImpeachNow banner.

I was pleased to hear that one of the rallies this past Sunday was at Trump’s Doral golf resort in Florida… the same place he just announced he wants to host next year’s G7 summit—so (surprise!) he’d personally profit from foreign governments and blatantly violate our Constitution’s emoluments clause, yet again.

Look, Trump’s going to keep breaking the law in plain sight. And it’s up to us to make sure we all hold him accountable.

P.S. Didn’t get my earlier email discussing last Sunday’s actions? If you want to learn more or refresh your memory, check it out below:

Republicans have been targeting House Democrats with anti-impeachment rallies while they’ve been at home during recess these past few weeks. So grassroots groups, including By the People and Women’s March, are calling for people nationwide to host and attend marches and rallies for impeachment this Sunday, October 13, right before members of Congress return to Washington, D.C.

The American people must set a precedent that we don’t abide by Trump’s abuses of power.

And there are so many abuses to choose from. As is typical with Trump, he’s continuing to violate our Constitution in plain sight.

With Ukraine, Trump corruptly pressured a foreign power for his own benefit—immediately after Robert Mueller appeared before Congress. As journalist James Risen writes: “Trump is a habitual criminal, and his reaction to escaping Mueller’s investigation was to go on yet another crime spree.”¹
Just in the past few weeks, he not only admitted to asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political rival Joe Biden, but he went on TV and asked China to do the same.
He’s explicitly refusing to cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry, which is obstruction of Congress.
He continues to profit off the presidency every day, putting his personal interests before the people he took an oath to serve, including having members of the U.S. Air Force stay at his Scottish resort—personally profiting from U.S. taxpayers.
Trump’s multiple racist abuses of power have risen to the level of impeachable offenses, violating our Constitution and endangering our lives.²
Trump keeps undermining Congress as a co-equal branch of government, a foundation of our democracy.

Now, thanks to activists like you pushing from the grassroots, we have a clear majority in the House supporting a formal impeachment inquiry. Public opinion polls—even one run by Fox News—show the majority of Americans support impeachment.

We’ve already been waiting too long to address Trump’s lawlessness. That’s why people voted me and my Democratic colleagues into Congress almost a year ago: To be a check on this dangerous administration.

This is about what we value, and what we allow, as a country. Trump’s disregard for our laws and values are attacks on us all. We cannot take our rights or our democracy for granted. We must fight for them, or we will lose them.

Every day, Trump is growing more and more unhinged and chaotic. He has repeatedly threatened and harassed the whistleblower who revealed his illegal interactions with Ukraine, accusing them of being a spy. And he has outrageously asked for Chairman Adam Schiff to be questioned and arrested for fraud and treason.

He also used disgusting antisemitic stereotypes to smear Chairman Schiff. We can’t become numb to this. We’re getting close to the one-year anniversary of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, which was inspired by similar rhetoric.³

It’s essential that we draw a line in the sand. We cannot concede to the racist, corrupt ideology of Trump and his administration. If we don’t take a stand, then we’re setting the precedent that future presidents can get away with trampling on our rights and our values.

Yesterday, in his first campaign rally since our impeachment inquiry officially launched, Trump said the Democrats are trying to overthrow the government. Outrageously, he’s called our impeachment inquiry a coup. This is serious. This is unprecedented. This is unacceptable.

As John Nichols with The Nation writes: “Impeachment is not ‘a coup’ against democracy and the rule of law. It is the proper and necessary response to a president who threatens democracy and the rule of law.”⁴

The impeachment process will continue to heat up as Congress returns from recess next week, and it’s essential that we build the strongest case possible, while moving quickly. As my colleague Rep. John Lewis noted recently, recognizing the urgency ahead of us:

We’re at a crossroads in our country. History will judge what actions we take now.

¹ https://theintercept.com/2019/09/26/donald-trumps-call-with-ukrainian-leader-one-day-after-robert-muellers-congressional-testimony-shows-the-president-is-a-brazen-criminal/
² https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FSFP-report-impeachment-and-racist-abuse-of-office-20190920-1.pdf
³ https://theintercept.com/2019/10/04/trump-anti-semitic-impeachment/
⁴ https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-tweet-constitution/
⁵ https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-impeachment-pelosi/