South Florida Democrats back Trump impeachment inquiry

South Florida’s House Democrats are backing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Six South Florida House members joined colleagues from around the country to call for impeachment proceedings to begin after months of a measured approach toward Trump’s conduct in office. The prospect for an impeachment inquiry moved quickly after a whistleblower complaint and report regarding Trump’s relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emerged last week.

“I’m announcing that the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry,” Pelosi said Tuesday. “I’ll be directing the six committees to proceed with investigations under that umbrella. The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

Trump allegedly encouraged Zelensky to investigate former Vice President and potential 2020 challenger Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in the Ukraine in a phone call and withheld military funds to Ukraine earlier this summer.

“New and mounting evidence indicates that he has obstructed justice, leveraged foreign aid to target political enemies, illegally blocked a whistleblower from Congress and invited external interference into our elections,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said in a statement. “Each one, alone, constitutes a grave abuse of power. This president’s reckless and habitual disregard for our laws leaves Congress no choice. Impeachment inquiry hearings must commence immediately. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of our democracy.”

South Florida Democratic Reps. Donna Shalala, Lois Frankel, Ted Deutch, Alcee Hastings and Wasserman Schultz all called for impeachment proceedings to begin for the first time on Tuesday. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Miami Democrat who previously supported opening an impeachment inquiry over Trump’s handling of the Mueller probe into Russian interference during the 2016 election, reiterated her support for the action.

Shalala, a close ally of Pelosi’s, said impeachment proceedings should begin if the Trump administration refuses to hand over the complaint to Congress so the House and Senate can evaluate it.

“If the acting director of National Intelligence chooses to violate the law and not hand over both the report and complaint to Congress, together with any transcripts related to the allegations in the report, I have no other choice but to support beginning an impeachment investigation,” Shalala said in a statement.

Minutes after Shalala and Frankel voiced support for an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday afternoon, Trump said he would release an unredacted transcript of the phone call.

“I am currently at the United Nations representing our Country, but have authorized the release tomorrow of the complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript of my phone conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine,” Trump tweeted. “You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!”

After Pelosi announced the inquiry, Trump called the move “presidential harassment” on Twitter.

Releasing the transcript does not satisfy Democrats’ demands. Democrats want to see the whistleblower’s complaint and report, which goes beyond a transcript of what Trump and Zelensky said on the phone. Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, and Democrats are demanding that he release the full complaint and report.

“This Thursday, the acting DNI will appear before the House Intelligence Committee, at that time he must turn over the whistleblower’s complaint to the full committee,” Pelosi said. “He will have to choose whether to break the law or honor his responsibility to the Constitution.”

The complaint and report describe “more than one” event, according to Democratic lawmakers, meaning that Trump releasing the unredacted transcript alone does not satisfy Democrats’ demands.

“It is obvious that President Trump knows no boundaries when advancing his own personal interests,” Frankel said in a statement. “The latest allegations that the president pressured the President of Ukraine to investigate a political opponent and is blocking a whistleblower’s complaint detailing those actions, if true, represent a clear abuse of power and impeachable offense. The American people deserve the truth. I join all those calling for impeachment proceedings.”

In the past 24 hours, a host of Democrats including members from Republican-leaning districts and longtime lawmakers like civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., voiced support for an impeachment inquiry. Other Florida House Democrats, including former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, D-St. Petersburg, also voiced support for an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Winter Park, called for a special committee to investigate Trump but did not specifically call for impeachment on Tuesday. Murphy is Florida’s most conservative House Democrat on many issues. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he discussed former Vice President Joe Biden in a July call with Ukraine’s president, and the Trump administration withheld military funds to Ukraine earlier this summer. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son Hunter.

“This president has engaged in behavior that we have not seen, nor would we have allowed, from the other 44 men who have occupied that office,” Mucarsel-Powell said in a statement. “In order to avoid a true constitutional crisis, it is imperative that Congress take swift action.”

Republicans are sticking with the president even though some have expressed concern with the nature of the phone call.

“I don’t think he should have done it, but that’s a far cry from what some people around here are claiming to know as fact that frankly we don’t know as fact,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday evening. “It is possible to do something that is wrong and not be an impeachable offense and people are throwing that term around so loosely it’s lost all meaning.”

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said Trump’s Ukraine discussions and Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine and China should be scrutinized in the same way by Congress. Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, unlike Trump, cannot be impeached as they are not currently serving in federal positions where the Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach.

“Democrats will impeach over everything, that’s all they’re doing,” Scott said in an interview. “They’re just mad about 2016. The whole time I’ve been up here all they talk about is impeaching the president, so they’ll come up with something tomorrow.”

Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar Democrat who was impeached and removed from office as a federal judge in 1989, said Trump’s “disregard for the rule of law and the Constitution have reached new heights.”

“This continued insistence on undermining our democracy must be met with the full force and strength possessed by the United States Congress as set forth by our founding fathers in the Constitution, up to and including, Articles of Impeachment,” Hastings said in a statement.

This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 2:16 PM.