Rep. Al Green (D, Tex.) has remained the most quoted Democratic member . . . . by Republicans. Green has given Republicans quotable gems to show a long-standing and unending effort to impeach Trump from his very first day in office. His most popular GOP talking point is “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get reelected.” However, Green has also said recently that the House may continue to impeach Trump and has called for an array of clearly illegitimate articles of impeachment. Now, Green has given Republicans a quote to reinforce its narrative by declaring that the “genesis” of the impeachment began before Donald Trump was even elected. That is likely to be added to the top Green quotes for the upcoming Senate trial.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes seemed to be setting up Green to walk back his prior controversial comments and defuse some of his quotes being used by Republicans. He stated:
“Political expediency and insincerity — those are two charges that have been leveled against Democrats during this entire affair, particularly since September when the formal impeachment inquiry started, and you play a starring role in those charges. The argument goes like this of House Republicans and Trump and his allies: the Democrats wanted to impeach Donald Trump from day one, they cast about looking for a set of facts that they could plausibly use to do it, and all of it was pretextual and reverse-engineered to get to this point, and Exhibit One: Congressman Al Green, who [has] been calling for the man’s impeachment for two years now. What’s your response to that charge?”
It was the ultimate softball question that actually supplied the Democratic talking point in the question for the obvious answer. The only thing Hayes did not do is hold up a sign saying “Just repeat what I said.” Green proceeded however to double down.
“Well, the genesis of impeachment, to be very candid with you, was when the president was running for office and he had members of his own party to talk about his unfitness to hold office. . . So the president didn’t have the luxury of persons from his party having been on his side as it were throughout this entire ordeal.”
The result is that a question overtly designed to get Green to walk back on claims that he wanted to impeach from the first day of Trump’s Administration led to a new answer saying that it actually began before he was elected.
Here is the transcript: Hayes/Green interview
https://usafacts.org/reports/snap-food-stamps-assistance
Here’s an example of Benson’s ”’deep thoughts”.
They were drawn by the DNC to create racial divisions.
Drawn by the Texas legislature.
The bar is pretty low for becoming a Democratic congressman…
The Republicant representing my district is even worse.
Jonathan Turley, where were you when the blatant racist Mitch McConnell announced he would oppose everything Obama did from the day Obama was elected? Where were you when McConnell refused to schedule a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court?
Neither McConnell nor the Senate Republican caucus were under any obligation to act as a shop assistant to Obama.
While we’re at it, congratulations for your achievement in turning ‘racist’ into a nonsense term.
McConnell’s comment about wanting Obama to be a one term president has been either taken out of context, or the subject of outright lies.
But I will give many Democrats credit for not wanting Trump to be a one term president, given their eagerness to yank him out of office as soon as he was inaugerated.
Peter Davis,
That isn’t what McConnell said, but thanks for lying about it.
What’s your point, Mr. Davis? Your complaints indicate that Mr. McConnell opposed Mr. Obama’s policies and used his legislative power to limit the implementation of those policies as a representative of those who put him in power (conservatives). I see no “racism.” Where do you get off?
Al Green represents the Congressional district just north of where I live. The district is only a little over 11% white. It’s predominantly Hispanic and black. Green is a black activist and is a good example of the results of gerrymandering to make up districts made up largely of blacks. He’s a mediocre lawyer who lives in and represents one of the worst parts of the Houston METRO area. Green’s main goal is lining his own pockets. I would pay little attention to him or his counterpart, Shirley Jackson Lee, a New Yorker who came to Houston when her husband was hired for the faculty of a black college. Neither of them would be in office if Texas Congressional districts weren’t drawn to create majority minority districts.