Major Democratic donor Tom Steyer is launching an eight-figure television ad campaign and a seven-figure social media campaign calling on Americans to urge their representatives in Congress to “take a stand” and help remove President Trump from office, according to a report.
“He’s brought us to the brink of nuclear war, obstructed justice at the FBI, and in direct violation of the Constitution, he’s taken money from foreign governments and threatened to shut down news organizations that report the truth,” Steyer said in the ad. “If that isn’t the case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become?”
Steyer said in the ad he’s launching the campaign to “demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment” and said a GOP-led Congress previously impeached a president “for far less.”
“Yet today, people in Congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger who’s mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons and they do nothing,” he said.
Steyer’s ad directed viewers to a website, NeedToImpeach, that included a letter from the Democratic megadonor listing the reasons he believes Trump should be impeached and urging elected officials to remove the president from office.
“Whether by the nature of Mr. Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin and Russia, his willingness to exploit the office of the presidency for his personal gain and treat the government like a family enterprise, his conduct during Charlottesville, his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords, or his seeming determination to take the nation to war, he has violated the Constitution, the office of the presidency, and the trust of the public,” Steyer wrote. “He is a clear and present danger to the United States of America.”
Steyer is funding the ad campaign himself instead of through his nonprofit, NextGen America, according to the Washington Post.
Despite Steyer’s pleas, there has so far been little momentum among Democrats in Congress for impeaching Trump.
Democratic Reps. Al Green of Texas and Brad Sherman of California introduced articles of impeachment earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, called for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump.
The path to impeaching Trump would be difficult, as Republicans currently have a majority in the House and hold 52 seats in the Senate.
If the House were to approve an article of impeachment against Trump by a majority vote, the issue would move to the Senate, where 67 senators would need to vote to remove Trump from office.
