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Congressional Democrats have unified around calls for an independent investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, but theyre split over whether to talk publicly about the possibility that President Trump will face impeachment.

Party leaders have warned against getting ahead of the facts. But Trumps abrupt decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, and allegations that Trump pressured Comey to drop a federal investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn have pushed some Democratic lawmakers to go further. A small but vocal group of lawmakers are now either explicitly calling for Trump to be impeached, or suggesting that impeachment may loom in the not-so-distant future.

On Wednesday morning, Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas took the dramatic step of publicly urging Trumps impeachment in a speech on the House floor. The president must be impeached, he said, alleging obstruction of justice as his reason.

Last week, Trump fired Comey, who was then the official charged with overseeing the bureaus investigation into potential links between Trump associates and the Russian government. The White House initially claimed Comey was dismissed over conduct during the 2016 election related to the FBIs investigation into former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. But two days later, the president told NBC News that he thought to himself this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, when he made the decision.

Then on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump attempted to halt the FBIs investigation into Flynn, who was ousted after falsely asserting he had not discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The White House has denied that the president ever told Comey to end the investigation.

For now, a number of unanswered questions remain. Initial reports that Trump attempted to halt an investigation into Flynn cited a memo created by Comey that has not yet surfaced publicly. There are currently efforts underway in Congress to find out exactly what did happen between Trump and Comey.

The House Oversight Committee, as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, have requested the Comey memos, and the former FBI director has been asked to testify in front of Congress. It may take some time before a fuller picture emerges of exactly what transpired. And as colleague Matt Ford has noted, legal scholars have emphasized that more information, and further investigation, would be necessary to conclude that the president had obstructed justice.

In his floor speech, Green, however, offered this summary of events: We are talking about a president who fired the FBI director who was investigating the president for his connections to Russian involvement in the presidents election.

Democratic party leaders, however, have not joined in the call for impeachment, and are actively warning against invoking the concept without first understanding exactly what transpired between the president and the former FBI director.

Thats not something that we should be rushing into, or rushing to suggest, Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is also probing Russian involvement in the election, told CNN in an interview, adding that would be a wrenching experience for the country.

Though even in arguing for a thorough accounting before rushing to judgement, Schiff engaged in speculation: We need to get to the bottom of what took place ... Was he trying to shut down a legitimate prosecution? Was he doing it because ultimately he was worried the trail might lead back to him?

Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has also reportedly urged caution, arguing that the I-word should be off the table for now, as The Daily Beasts Tim Mak put it on Wednesday.

Despite the message from the Democratic leadership that its too early to talk impeachment, at least some Democrats, particularly in the House, believe theres no need to wait.

Democratic Representative Maxine Waters has been publicly raising the possibility of impeachment for some time now. On Tuesday, Waters argued that Democrats shouldnt be afraid to use the word impeachment, at a conference hosted by the left-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress, and delved into the topic again.

Waters noted, however, that shes gotten pushback for bringing it up. This president is one that I have focused on in ways that some people say, oh my god, she said the word impeachment, oh my goodness its too soon to say that, Waters said. But, she added, we dont have to think impeachment is out of our reach.

The risk for the Democratic Party is that the more its lawmakers invoke the idea of impeachment, the more frequently Democrats who dont want to talk about the possibility will be asked to weigh in. Democrats facing tough reelection races in red states and conservative congressional districts in the 2018 midterms may prefer not to answer that question.

If Democrats get too far out ahead in making claims about what they believe investigations into Russian involvement in the election may produce, they risk losing credibility if the evidence that emerges dont support the charges they make, or the speculation they engage in.

Its not just House Democrats wading into a discussion about impeachment.

On Tuesday, Independent Senator Angus King was asked on CNN if Congress could be moving toward impeachment. Reluctantly I have to say yes, simply because obstruction of justice is such a serious offense, he said, though he later sought to clarify that, telling Maine reporters, there are a lot of facts that we need to establish.

Even Republican Representative Justin Amash of Michigan has invoked impeachment, telling reporters that if Comey memo allegations are true, its grounds for impeachment, according to The Hills Katie Bo Williams.

In an interview on Monday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi took pains to argue that she doesnt subscribe to talking about impeachment absent a clear case.

If youre talking about impeachment, youre talking about, what are the facts?, she said during a CNN town hall event on Monday, prior to the report that Trump attempted to intervene in the Flynn investigation. What are the facts that you would make a case on? What are the rules that he may have violated? If you dont have that case, youre just participating in more hearsay.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has similarly called for sticking to the facts. My view is we need a thorough investigation and we need to get all the facts and then well come to conclusions. Our step now is to get a thorough investigation, he said on Tuesday.

Original post:
Democrats Are Split Over Impeachment - The Atlantic

A who's who of prospects for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination -- none declared, of course, but none ruling national ambitions out, either -- will appear at a daylong event hosted by the Center for American Progress.

The liberal think tank's first-ever "Ideas Conference" is poised to allow those vying to lead the party to test-drive their economic messages and arguments a year and a half before any of them would actually have to head to Iowa and New Hampshire to campaign.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is set to deliver the lunchtime keynote, while New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will deliver the closing speech. Also on tap -- and seen as potential 2020 candidates -- are New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley.

From the executive ranks, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will open the event, while Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper are also set for speaking roles.

Other leading Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, liberal mega-donor Tom Steyer, Gold Star father Khizr Khan and influential activists are slated to appear.

The event comes as the Democratic Party -- energized by a protest movement unlike anything the party has seen for decades -- searches for new voices at its forefront.

Former President Barack Obama has departed the political stage for now, and former Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd recently that he will not run in 2020.

It's left Democrats facing a nominating contest much more like 2004, when John Kerry emerged from a wide-open field, or 2008, when Obama bested Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, than recent contests with well-established incumbents or front-runners.

By this stage in those cycles, prospective candidates "were working pretty hard at it" behind the scenes, said Bob Shrum, a veteran of Democratic campaigns, including Al Gore's in 2000 and Kerry's in 2004.

"There's a lot more happening behind the scenes in terms of folks maneuvering to line up fundraisers, political talent, how they're going to put a campaign together," Shrum said.

So at a cattle call like Tuesday's, he said, "you want to do well."

"First of all, you have to stand up to Trump -- visibly, consistently and cogently -- on everything from health care to tax fairness to the Russia investigation," he said. "Two, articulate a compelling message on economic and social justice, and you can't choose one over the other."

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has by far the largest megaphone of any Democrat -- and his massive email list built in 2016 would give him a huge fundraising advantage. But Sanders would also be 79 years old on Election Day 2020.

For other potential candidates, the 2018 midterm cycle is more important. It's an opportunity to curry favor with House members and senators on the ballot this cycle by campaigning and raising money for them while also elevating their own profiles and meeting local party honchos, said Mitch Stewart, a founding partner of 270 Strategies and a veteran of Obama's campaigns.

Stewart argued cattle calls are "less important now" than they were in 2004 and 2008 -- in part because social media tools like Twitter allow more opportunities for potential candidates to reach wide swaths of the party's electorate. He pointed to Booker's Twitter account during his tenure as Newark mayor as an example.

But events like Tuesday's also offer potential candidates opportunities to test-drive a message that reaches beyond an energetic base, Stewart said.

"What I haven't really seen any of the potential Democratic candidates do is put out a positive message that can try to break the bond that Trump has with some of his voters," he said.

"And I think right now, it's just good to have activism, it's good to have energy," he said. "But at some point, a candidate's going to have to channel that energy into something a bit more constructive and talk about how Democrats offer a different economic vision that can peel off some of these voters that were sort of duped by Trump."

Read more from the original source:
Democrats set for first view of potential 2020 candidates - CNN

New York Times

Young Black Democrats, Eager to Lead From the Left, Eye Runs in 2018 New York Times In states from Massachusetts to Florida, a phalanx of young black leaders in the Democratic Party is striding into some of the biggest elections of 2018, staking early claims on governorships and channeling the outcry of rank-and-file Democrats who ... and more »

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Young Black Democrats, Eager to Lead From the Left, Eye Runs in 2018 - New York Times

Many top Democrats are furious that Bernie Sanders appears to be running for president again, or at least planning to drag out his decision long enough to freeze the race around him.

Hes frustrating alumni of his 2016 campaign, some of whom would like him to run again, by showing no interest in raising early money or locking down lower level staff moves they say would indicate he recognizes the need for a different kind of campaign operation in 2020. Outside of his tighter-than-ever inner circle, friends and staffers whod be happy to back him again say they rarely, if ever, speak to Sanders these days.

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Sanders hasnt made any decision, and he tends to dismiss the discussion about 2020 as dumb. He hasn't even fully committed to running for re-election to the Senate next year.

Weighing on him throughout it all and clouding his outlook, people close to him say, is the toll on his family from the ongoing FBI investigation into potential bank fraud at the small Vermont college where his wife was the president.

But the senator, wholl be 79 the next time the New Hampshire primary rolls around, is continuing to put himself at the center of the conversation. Hes introduced a Medicare-for-all bill this week that he hopes will force others to sign on. Hes joining Ohio Gov. John Kasich for a CNN town hall tonight thats being held on the evening of the Center for American Progress forward-looking Ideas Conference an event Sanders wasnt invited to. Some of his moves, like collecting names and email addresses via RSVPs to his unity tour with new Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez for his Friends of Bernie Sanders group a mailing list the DNC itself wont have any access to have alienated his allies on the left.

The fact that Tom Perez has given Sanders a platform without Sanders genuinely agreeing to work toward unity has made a mockery of the whole process and literally divided the party more than it was before the tour began. It has been a disaster, said Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the influential liberal Daily Kos site. Yes, Perez and company are clearly afraid of Sanders and his followers, but letting Sanders make a mockery of the party doesnt exactly help it build in the long haul.

"He's a constant reminder. He allows the healing that needs to take place to not take place, said one longtime senior party official, who like others, remains too worried about appearing to oppose Sanders to speak on the record.

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile warned party leaders against relying on Sanders, unless theyre willing to give in on opening the party to more independents like he wants.

"He's not someone who we should go to, to build or rebuild or expand our party unless he's willing," she said.

Sanders, who has re-registered as an independent and made a point of asserting that independence while he was on tour with Perez, is nonetheless the most popular Democrat and the most popular active politician in the country. Hes savoring it, whether in the stops hes planning to make this weekend in Montana for Democratic House candidate Rob Quist, or his trip to Iowa, home of the caucuses he nearly won, on July 15 for the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement's "action convention.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders 2016 campaign manager and now the president of his Our Revolution group, still speaks with the senator all the time. He dismissed any speculation about 2020 as ridiculously early, but added that the door is wide open, and said those who worry about how he might tilt the party need to wake up.

What is their goal, some kind of defense of the Democratic Partys newfound centrism? If thats what theyre looking to do, I guess that they would consider it a disaster. If they want to win the White House, I think it would be a good thing, Weaver said.

That's a similar message to the one Weaver delivered to a private caucus meeting of Senate Democrats early this year, when he warned those up for re-election in 2018 against centrism, raising eyebrows in the room, according to Democrats present for the presentation.

But at a time other and far less famous potential 2020 contenders are speaking with operatives about what their campaigns might look like and gathering allies by raising money for colleagues, Sanders' push is far more oriented toward defining Democrats' message in public.

In Congress, a number of up-and-comers say theyre glad to see Sanders pushing the party toward an economic focus, and away from the social issues of Hillary Clintons failed Stronger Together. Those voices, and the people who show up by the thousands still at Sanders stops around the country, are the ones the gripers should be focused on, his supporters say not nursing old grudges or complaining that Sanders would torpedo their chances.

Starting with healthcare-focused rallies in January that he encouraged Senate Democratic leaders to do more widely, Sanders continues traveling the country. Hes also using his newfound celebrity to elevate local-level fights like a unionization drive in Mississippi and the candidacy of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello, whose effort is being managed by one of his former top staffers.

Touring the country with Perez, Sanders sought to stamp his economic populism on the head of the DNC. But people familiar with the arrangement said he also spent much of the time traveling with the party chair on their private Gulfstream jet getting to learn about Perezs personal history, which he hadn't bothered to read up on earlier.

For years, our fellow activists on the left have said we need an antidote to the tea party. This is what an antidote to the tea party looks like, said former NAACP President Ben Jealous an Our Revolution board member at the groups meeting in Maryland last month.

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Sanders loyalists say theyre eager to stir up the internal fight that they say the party needs to have. To Sanders, its the natural next step in his pursuit of the 40-year-old goal of upending the established political system, which they see millions of voters having supported last year. And each passing day of the Trump administration, along with the Democrats resistance, has vindicated his belief that substantive change can come when masses rise up.

Our party is divided into various wings, and Bernie clearly represents one of those wings. It is a progressive, activist, economic populist wing to the party, said Mark Longabaugh, one of the top strategists for the 2016 campaign, who said hes among those whod be ready to sign up again. The rest of the party still hasnt wrapped its mind around it.

Longabaugh, who very early into Sanders last run drew up the plan that mapped a path through New Hampshire, Minnesota, a surprise Michigan win and overpowering Clinton in the caucus states, said he hasnt written anything yet for 2020.

First of all, you have to confess were not together. You can have a unity tour until the cows come home, but theres a divide in the party, said former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, another Our Revolution board member.

Sanders sees everything hes doing as maximizing his sway in the Senate, using the speculation to build his center of gravity. To the extent he has thought about 2020, he hasnt gotten into how different the race would likely be if its a packed field, rather than the binary choice of 2016.

If he were to run again, he would almost certainly be by far the most famous entrant, dominating the left and sucking up far more television coverage than he did before. But he would also have four years' worth of new baggage to contend with, including barbs from Clinton allies who still quietly blame him for her loss.

Staffers and aides are willing to give him time, for now. But they worry that Sanders wont decide until too late for many of them to be able to go to other campaigns if he sits 2020 out, and that frustrates them. They worry that he hasnt processed what really running again would entail, and is convinced it would be lightning in a bottle again.

From the senior leadership on down, one of the biggest problems we faced was not enough middle management who knew that and now he has a real opportunity to lock those people down now, whether through Our Revolution or his Senate campaign, and there doesnt appear to be any effort to do that, said one member of his 2016 campaign.

If he doesnt run, progressives are hoping he doesnt turn the Democratic primary race into a two-year long audition for his seal of approval.

Having that dangling question out there can be a little frustrating, said one Democratic Senate staffer. If hes not going to wind up doing it, is there an issue of an heir apparent, or is it just, This is my thing, Ive built this, I take it with me. Thats kind of disrespectful to the cause that rallied around him.

Every once in a while you realize that he is in fact an independent, with the good and the bad that comes with it, the staffer added.

I would quote Robert Frost, said Larry Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolutions board and one of the DNC Unity Commission leaders, referring to Sanders' attempt to remake the party in his image. We have miles to go before we sleep.

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Democrats divide on Bernie's 2020 plans - Politico

Senator Bernie Sanders and DNC Chair Tom Perez during their Come Together and Fight Back tour in Miami.

Next month Im returning to Marthas Vineyard. Its a lovely place and, for progressives, the ultimate safe space. It sometimes seems that Republicans need a green card just to visit, and that the island only issues 10 per year.

But this creates a problem: What passes for political wisdom can become, shall we say, insular. As a journalistic eminence murmured after enduring a dinner party where, in his view, progressive piety strangled reality by the throat: As Marthas Vineyard goes, so goes Cambridge, Berkeley, and the upper West Side of Manhattan.

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Which puts me in mind of certain Democratic liberals and lemmings.

Hold the outrage, please. I like to think Im as progressive as the next guy, including ardent support for voting rights, LGBT rights, reproductive rights, racial justice, and preventing dangerous people from slaughtering innocents with guns. Over the years, Ive devoted considerable energy to these issues. But, for me, the current ideological fratricide among Democrats evokes the mythic rodents who commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs.

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This years contest for DNC chair in essence, a tiresome rerun of the fight between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders featured lemmings galore. Among them were the raucous activists who booed the liberal Tom Perez for beating the even more liberal, and more controversial, Keith Ellison, perpetuating the ongoing divide between the merely progressive and the truly pure.

Demography as much as geography has determined the Democrats defeat, despite a decided popular vote victory in the presidential election.

Inescapably, this spectacle raised questions. What slice of the populace do these folks represent? At this critical juncture, were Perez and Ellison the best choices Democrats had? What about Pete Buttigieg, the young and appealing mayor of South Bend, Ind. who, having succeeded in a red state, emphasized expanding the partys appeal in middle America? And what does all this fractiousness portend for the Democrats ability to reverse their electoral fortunes?

Nothing good. To heal the wounds, Perez and Sanders launched a unity tour. Quickly, it foundered on their support of the Democratic candidate for mayor of Omaha, Neb., Heath Mello who, it transpired, had taken antiabortion positions as a state legislator. Quickly, abortion-rights groups pounced, asserting that the partys support for Mello was unacceptable.

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Progressives like Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended the right of a local candidate to hold views at odds with theirs, sensibly distinguishing between a would-be mayor of Omaha and, say, a Supreme Court nominee. But the head of NARAL denounced this as politically stupid. Swiftly, Perez capitulated, asserting that Democrats commitment to abortion rights is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.

Leadership this is not.

Lets be clear. The Democratic Party firmly embraces reproductive rights and should. And, yes, the antiabortion movement is tainted with misogyny, patriarchy, and fundamentalism. But, unavoidably, the debate over abortion includes a genuine ethical issue regarding how we define life. And, as a practical matter, a significant minority of Democrats oppose abortion; some are women who support maternal leave, better child-care policies, and wage equity.

Abortion rights should not, in itself, be a litmus test of decency or of who gets to be a Democrat in Nebraska.

But doctrinal purity is contagious. Shortly, Sanders stumbled, when asked if Jon Ossoff a Democrat opposing an antiabortion GOP zealot in a bright-red Georgia congressional district was a progressive. I dont know, Sanders flatly stated. Really? When did Georgia become Vermont? And when did progressive orthodoxy become so rigid and exclusionary?

But among Democrats, this ideological Stalinism is all too common. A few years ago, a friend and leader in the gun-control movement refused to support the incumbent Democratic senator from Arkansas, deeming him too compromised on guns. He lost to a Republican who opposes everything my friend cares about. Now Republicans control the Senate, and Neil Gorsuch sits on the Supreme Court.

This illustrates the complex relationship between moral urgency and political actuality. The civil rights movement was not driven by political exigency, but by the uncompromising commitment of brave men and women who transformed our national conscience. But translating civil rights into law required a Democratic president working through a Democratic Congress.

Too many activists fail to grasp this or that their desire to thwart Donald Trump exceeds their partys ability to do so. Thus some on the left threaten primary challenges against Democrats they perceive as insufficiently militant.

This is political self-immolation. The Democrats are defending Senate seats in red or purple states like Montana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Pennsylvania all of which Trump carried. Do these petulant purists really think that a Warren-style Democrat could win in Montana? Or care that they risk losing the last bastion of legislative resistance to Trump even, perhaps, the filibuster?

Already, Democrats are ceding most of America with alarming celerity. Since 2006, the party has lost 10 percent of its seats in the Senate, 19 percent in the House, 20 percent in state legislatures, and 36 percent of governorships. The 16 percent of counties won by Hillary Clinton resemble, demographically, a cocktail party on Marthas Vineyard urban, affluent, well-educated, and, increasingly, politically homogenous and sociologically isolated. In such circumstances, political antennae rust, litmus tests flourish, and a vision of deplorables sets in that mirrors the intolerance of the right.

No surprise, then, that many middle-class and blue-collar Americans including former Obama voters feel that national Democrats favor the wealthy. Programmatically, this simply isnt so. No doubt this misperception owes much to the GOPs rank dishonesty. But ideological rigidity and cultural condescension surely do not help nor, frankly, do enormous speaking fees from Wall Street.

So what should Democrats do? Some think the party should focus on turning out its core demographic well-educated whites, women, young people, and minorities; others on winning back some of the voters it lost to Trump. But this is a false choice. Nor is it sufficient for Democrats to define themselves merely by opposing Trump. Instead, the party needs to prioritize engaging voters rather than excluding them.

This requires what went missing in 2016: a compelling and unifying vision of how Democratic policies improve the lives of more Americans, helping unleash the potential of every person wherever and whoever they are to lift themselves and their country. This message of inclusion and economic opportunity transcends geography and demographics and, as well, any single issue or constituent group no matter how important. It says, rather, that every American is not merely worthwhile, but valuable.

That is what a national party looks like.

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The Democrats' liberal lemmings - The Boston Globe