Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a 2020 presidential candidate, has broken with her party to say that the White House transcript of a conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does not merit impeachment.
Speaking Wednesday, the Democratic congresswoman said that she thought impeaching Trump would make the political divide in the country more pronounced.
“I think when you step outside of the bubble here in Washington and you get to where most folks are … I think most people reading through that transcript are not going to find that extremely compelling cause to throw out a president that won an election in 2016,” she said. “And instead what I think most people will see is, ‘Hey, this is another move by Democrats to get rid of Donald Trump,’ further deepening the already hyperpartisan divides that we have in this country.”
“Look, Donald Trump is corrupt, he is unfit to serve our country as president, he is unqualified to serve our country as commander in chief … I just think it’s so important for our country to be able to move forward to bridge these divides, that it be the American people who make this decision,” Gabbard, 38, said.
Before the release of the transcript, Gabbard said that she did not support House Democrats’ Tuesday launch of a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. Appearing on CNN, Gabbard said that “Congress needs to exercise oversight over the information that’s been leaked.”
The transcript in question is of a phone call that was highlighted in an August whistleblower complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General. The whistleblower alleges that Trump pushed Ukraine multiple times to investigate ties that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had to a Ukrainian energy company.
The actual complaint was released to the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday and the whistleblower will reportedly be permitted to speak with congressional investigators in the future.
