Press Releases

The Congressional Black Caucus released the following statement after the House voted to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump:

“This is indeed a dark time in our nation’s history. For only the third time in United States history, a sitting President has been impeached by the House of Representatives. The facts are undeniable: Donald J. Trump has abused the power of the office of the Presidency in his blatant attempt to cheat his way to reelection. Congress is a co-equal branch of government and one of our central responsibilities is to provide oversight of the Executive Branch. These are the very checks and balances the framers built into the constitution so no one branch would have unchecked power.

Sadly, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have diminished this historic moment to an effort to discredit the 63 million voters who supported the President. But on brand, they have no words of support for the countless voters who have been silenced by voter suppression efforts since the gutting of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Let’s be clear: Black people have lost a lot since President Trump was sworn into office. The list of regressive and racist policies proposed by Donald Trump’s administration is long and sad. To add insult to injury, we have to hear him and his supporters tout the lowest Black unemployment rate in history even though he inherited President Barack Obama’s economy and has never championed a single policy or program for Black people. They also fail to acknowledge that the Black unemployment rate remains almost twice that of our white counterparts in the midst of a growing racial wealth divide. The strongest stock market in history means nothing to you if you’re working two or three jobs at today’s minimum wage and still can’t make ends meet. But that is a policy debate that is left for voters to decide at the ballot box.

This moment is about a lawless president attempting the greatest voter fraud in history: using the office of the Presidency and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to strong arm defenseless countries into interfering in our 2020 presidential elections. The Conscience of the Congress takes a backseat to no one in saying enough has long been enough. The Congressional Black Caucus will continue to hold this Administration accountable, both through the ongoing impeachment proceedings and in the oversight capacity of our respective Committees as required by the Constitution of the United States of America.