House Speaker Nancy Pelosi selected some of the most ardent opponents of President Trump to make the case to the Senate that he be removed from office.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, on Wednesday announced a team of seven impeachment managers who will lead the prosecution against Trump in a Senate trial set to begin Jan. 21.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, of California, is one of the most vocal Trump opponents in the House and regularly appears in media interviews denouncing the president.
Schiff has long promoted the allegation Trump coordinated with Russia to win the 2016 election and is still making the claim.
“In 2016, Trump invited Russia to interfere in our elections and then obstructed the investigation into his misconduct,” Schiff tweeted in December, before the House voted to impeach Trump. “In 2019, Trump abused his power to again obtain foreign election interference and obstructed Congress’s investigation. This is a clear pattern of misconduct.”
Schiff, 59, regularly condemns Trump’s agenda and foreign policy on cable news. For instance, he denounced Trump’s recent drone strikes in Iraq and said they were not justified.
“The intelligence I’ve seen doesn’t justify it, and the ever-changing story from Trump and his top advisers inspires no confidence,” Schiff said.
Pelosi also appointed House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, of New York. Nadler, 72, in 2017 declared his goal in Congress would be to “do everything we can to stop Trump and his extreme agenda.” Nadler became Judiciary Committee chairman in 2019 when Democrats won back the majority and has dedicated a significant amount of the committee’s time to investigating Trump, his personal business, and his administration.
House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, of California, worked on the past two impeachment investigations. Lofgren, 72, was a committee staffer during the investigation of President Richard Nixon. After winning a Silicon Valley-area House seat in 1994, four years later she was a member of the Judiciary Committee, which conducted the impeachment proceedings into President Bill Clinton.
Lofgren in December called the allegation against Trump “by far the most serious.”
Lofgren is a staunch opponent of Trump’s agenda, in particular his efforts to secure the border with a wall and deport illegal immigrants.
Rep. Val Demings, of Florida, and Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, are also regular critics of the president.
Demings, a former Orlando police chief, has for months said Trump coordinated with the Russians ahead of the 2016 election. Demings, 62, in April said she believed there as ample evidence to impeach the president, even after the Mueller report did not find that Trump coordinated with the Russians.
Jeffries is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. At an event commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., Jeffries, 49, called Trump “a hater in the White House, a birther-in-chief, the grand wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Jeffries, appearing on Face the Nation in March said Trump could be “a Russian asset … the functional equivalent of an organized crime boss or just a useful idiot who happens to have been victimized by the greatest collection of coincidences in the history of the republic.”
The list of impeachment managers includes Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Texas freshman and former municipal judge. Garcia voted against tabling an impeachment resolution back in July, at a time many House Democrats, including Pelosi and other leaders, were hesitant to pursue that path.
“Trump is a clear and present danger to our democracy, and he must be held accountable,” Garcia tweeted Wednesday.
Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado freshman selected as an impeachment manager, has been the least critical of Trump, at least in public.
Crow, 40, is a former Army Ranger and is on the House Armed Services Committee. He’s also a lawyer and in 2018 won a longtime Republican district by beating a GOP incumbent House Democrats had long targeted.
“As an impeachment manager, I will approach the process with the dignity and seriousness that it deserves, and advocate for a full and fair trial,” Crow said. “It’s my solemn responsibility to lay out the facts and give the Senate — and the American people — confidence in the process.”
