Some Democrats won’t even say the word impeachment. But newly sworn-in Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib went there, publicly, on Day One, calling President Donald Trump a “motherfucker” while she was at it.At an event Thursday night hosted by progressive group MoveOn just hours after she became an official member of the House, Tlaib took aim at Trump.“When your son looks at you and says, ‘Mama, look, you won. Bullies don’t win.’ And I say, ‘Baby, they don’t’ because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherfucker,’” Tlaib said to raucous applause.
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Tlaib’s words are in stark contrast to typical rhetoric from Democrats, a party known for avoiding conflict with campaign slogans such as “When they go low, we go high.” Earlier in the day, Tlaib co-authored an op-ed with constitutional law attorney John Bonifaz that also called for Trump’s impeachment.“President Donald Trump is a direct and serious threat to our country. On an almost daily basis, he attacks our Constitution, our democracy, the rule of law and the people who are in this country. His conduct has created a constitutional crisis that we must confront now,” the op-ed said.Friday morning, Tlaib tweeted that she stood by her words.Trump apparently responded to Tlaib’s comments with two factually questionable tweets, saying he could not be impeached because there was “no Collusion with Russia” and that he was the most “popular Republican in Party history.” Trump also claimed that Democrats only want to impeach him because they can’t win in 2020.
Aside from the president, the response to Tlaib’s declaration has been divisive. Her supporters welcomed the forceful words, but some top Democrats expressed dismay at her use of explicit language and calls for impeachment. Meanwhile, Conservatives, who elected an infamously vulgar president known to grab women “by the pussy” without their consent, tone-policed the new congresswoman and called her a “lowlife.”Tlaib is among the most progressive members of Congress: She is a Palestinian-American, the first-ever elected to Congress, who openly supports the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the same group that propped up Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election and helped elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the massively popular Democratic congresswoman from New York, to the House in the midterms.Cover: Democratic members of the House of Representatives take their oath on the opening day of the 116th Congress as the Democrats take the majority from the GOP, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. On the top row are, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., left, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., middle row, Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., left, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and on the bottom row, Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. They are joined by children and family members, a tradition on the first day of the new session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)