[B]URLINGTON — Under pressure from some constituents to join a renewed effort to impeach the president, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said he supports at least censuring him.
The catalyst for the latest impeachment effort was President Donald Trump’s incendiary comments about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, announced Friday he would introduce articles of impeachment against Trump, marking the third time Green has tried to gain support for the move. Green said he will introduce the measure this week.
Some Vermonters are calling on Welch to get on board.
When VTDigger asked Welch at an event Tuesday morning whether he would support the latest measure, he said he was unsure but would support a congressional censure of Trump. That’s the political equivalent of a strongly worded letter, according to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute.
“Trump is off the rails,” Welch said. “I am going to support the censure.”
Welch returned to Washington, D.C., later in the morning. A small group of activists loosely organized as Vermonters for Unity met with Welch’s state director, George Twigg, on Tuesday afternoon, imploring Twigg to pass along a message to his boss.
“It’s just time. It’s time to dump Trump,” said Robert Appel, a civil rights attorney who attended the meeting.
Appel and an activist who also joined the meeting, Henry Harris, lead the Vermont chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Appel and Harris said they are asking Welch to advance impeachment proceedings as leaders of the guild chapter.
Impeachment efforts can start only in the House. If a majority there votes to impeach, which must be for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” then the president is tried in the Senate. Removal requires the agreement of two-thirds of senators.
“The question is should the House debate the issue,” said Tom Gilbert, who owns and operates Black Dirt Farm in Greensboro Bend. “Shutting down debate on this is just signaling to people of color and immigrants in this country … that no, this is not a place that people in power are taking you into consideration.”
Two high school students with the group said Trump has made the culture at their schools worse. Fin Hewitt, 16, is a part-time student at Cabot High School but was at Twinfield Union School in Marshfield last year as Trump rose to power. Hewitt said Trump’s presidency split his school.
“There was the redneck side and the hippie side,” Hewitt said. “It turned the school into a really ugly scene.”
Gilbert’s daughter Kai, 16, said that during the election physical fights would break out and Trump supporters would wear Confederate flags and draw swastikas around her school.
“It pulled the curtain off what was actually in these people’s minds,” Gilbert said. “The fact that he is the president legitimizes what they’re saying.”
During the meeting, Twigg was careful to play the role of listener and messenger, rather than make any assurances about what Welch would do. Twigg said Welch’s office heard from some Vermonters about the impeachment issue during December and more have been reaching out about the latest effort by Green.
Appel said that considering how overwhelmingly Trump lost in Vermont, and that Trump’s poll numbers have continued to drop, Welch likely isn’t at risk of losing support in his state should he vote to advance impeachment measures.
“Politically, I don’t see a big risk for Peter to do the right thing,” Appel said.
VTDigger reporter Tiffany Danitz Pache contributed to this report.
