WASHINGTON (CN) — As a self-professed son of the segregated South who has spent a lifetime — and eight terms in Congress — rejecting discrimination, Representative Al Green is a man for whom words have immense power.
Green is careful when he speaks, and rarely begins sentences with “I,” advice heeded from his mother on the dangers of pride, he said in interview with Courthouse News.
Sitting near a luminous window in the opulent Ernest S. Petinaud dining room in the U.S. Capitol — a space named for a beloved Jamaica-born maître d’ who earned his citizenship after serving lawmakers during and after segregation — Green recalled his firsthand experiences with racism: from the horror of having a cross burned on his lawn decades ago to death threats he received when calling for Trump’s impeachment.
A Democrat representing the 9th District of Texas — where black and Hispanic voters make up more than two-thirds of the population — Green started the calls for Trump’s impeachment back in December 2017, making him the first member of Congress to do so.
‘No guardrails’
Green said the fundamental aspect of American jurisprudence, or philosophy of law, was founded on the belief that no one is above it.
“Well, a good many of my constituents are of the opinion that no one is above the law,” Green said. “Except for the president and maybe, other powerful people who can find ways to circumvent justice because of who they know. And the justice system and our system of jurisprudence is not supposed to be based on who you know, but rather what you have done.”
Observing Trump in the weeks since his Senate acquittal on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges, however, Green said this adage on accountability no longer seems applicable to the president.
From the retaliatory firing of star impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman to sparring with Attorney General William Barr over judicial oversight, Trump has increasingly flexed his powers to intervene at will in matters of law and order — with Congress seemingly powerless to stop him.
“If there are no guardrails, then we have a president who can do almost anything he chooses — and do it with immunity or impunity,” Green said. “So, it went beyond just the trial not being a real trial, where you have witnesses and other evidence presented. It went beyond that.”
The First Calls to Impeach
In December 2017, Trump had not yet marked one year in office when Green first called for articles of impeachment, focusing not on statutory crimes but rather what Green deemed high misdemeanors disgracing the office Trump holds.
That measure quoted the president’s “very fine people” comment in the aftermath of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, among other remarks termed as hate speech.
When it failed 58-364, Green tried again one month later, this time holding up Trump’s reported denigration of Haiti, El Salvador and several African nations as “shithole countries.”
This resolution died 66-335.
Green hit critical mass with his third and final measure in July 2019, with 95 Democrats signing on after Trump said four freshman congresswomen — Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley — should “go back” to their countries.