Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Elizabeth Warren says impeachment is more than just a “political inconvenience”

“This is not about politics; this is about principle. This is about what kind of a democracy we have.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Alex Wong/Getty Images

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) continued to push for the impeachment of President Donald Trump at a CNN town hall on Monday night, telling her more cautious colleagues that they cannot avoid the issue because it is politically inconvenient.

“There is no political inconvenience exception to the Constitution,” Warren said, later adding: “This is not about politics, this is about principle. This is about what kind of a democracy we have.”

In her answer, Warren outlined her three main conclusions from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Trump campaign and administration and Russian election interference.

The first is that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election in order to help Donald Trump,” Warren said. “The evidence is just there. Read it, footnote after footnote, page after page documentation. Part two, Donald Trump welcomed that help.”

Her third major conclusion, she said: “When the federal government starts to investigate part one and part two, Donald Trump took repeated steps aggressively to try to halt the investigation.”

Warren is one of the few 2020 Democratic contenders who has supported Congress pursuing impeachment — something Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has urged her party to approach with caution. Sens. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Cory Booker also said talk of impeachment was premature, as did Sen. Amy Klobuchar at an earlier town hall.

But Warren pushed back against the idea that impeachment would be too time-consuming — all evidence is laid out in the Mueller report, she said. She argued that it is important in part to hold politicians responsible for their choices.

“If there are people in the House or the Senate who want to say that’s what a president can do when the president is being investigated for his own wrongdoings or when a foreign government attacks our country,” she said, “then they should have to take that vote and live with it for the rest of their lives.”

See More:

More in Politics

The Logoff
Trump’s DOJ wants to undo January 6 convictionsTrump’s DOJ wants to undo January 6 convictions
The Logoff

How the Trump administration is still trying to rewrite January 6 history.

By Cameron Peters
Politics
Donald Trump messed with the wrong popeDonald Trump messed with the wrong pope
Politics

Trump fought with Pope Francis before. He’s finding Pope Leo XIV to be a tougher foil.

By Christian Paz
Podcasts
A cautionary tale about tax cutsA cautionary tale about tax cuts
Podcast
Podcasts

California cut property taxes in the 1970s. It didn’t go so well.

By Miles Bryan and Noel King
Podcasts
Obama’s top Iran negotiator on Trump’s screwupsObama’s top Iran negotiator on Trump’s screwups
Podcast
Podcasts

Wendy Sherman helped Obama reach a deal with Iran. Here’s what she thinks Trump is doing wrong.

By Kelli Wessinger and Noel King
Politics
The Supreme Court could legalize moonshine, and ruin everything elseThe Supreme Court could legalize moonshine, and ruin everything else
Politics

McNutt v. DOJ could allow the justices to seize tremendous power over the US economy.

By Ian Millhiser
The Logoff
The new Hormuz blockade, briefly explainedThe new Hormuz blockade, briefly explained
The Logoff

Trump tries Iran’s playbook.

By Cameron Peters