With President Trump’s public approval ratings wobbling, organizers of a nationwide drive to get him out of office are hoping for large turnouts Tuesday when they visit Congressional field offices — including all five in Connecticut — to push for impeachment this year.
The 50501 organization and Citizens’ Impeachment plan to send their local leaders along with volunteers to the offices of U.S. Reps. Jahanna Hayes, Rose DeLauro, Jim Himes, John Larson and Joe Courtney to call on them to publicly join the move to impeach Trump.
Also on Tuesday, Indivisible CT is conducting an anti-ICE rally on the state Capitol lawn, taking political aim at a federal agency that has fallen sharply out of public favor after killing two American citizens in Minnesota and roughing up scores of others.
As of Monday afternoon, 50501’s website listed hundreds of events Tuesday under the banner “National Day of Lobbying: Impeach, Convict, Remove, and Defund ICE.”
“The list of offenses this president has committed against us could fill an encyclopedia,” said Alison Greenlaw, an organizer with 50501’s Connecticut unit. “He’s a traitor and a tyrant. He has to go.”
Her group is asking supporters to show up at their Congressional representative’s offices at specific times, or write letters detailing how Trump’s administration has hurt them and requesting support for impeachment.
“Trump and his enablers routinely and repeatedly engage in unconstitutional behavior. The remedy is impeachment, and the American people demand accountability,” Keira Havens, executive director of Citizens’ Impeachment, wrote in a statement.
While all five of Connecticut’s Congressional representatives very vocally endorse impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, they have generally not taken stances on any possible vote aimed at Trump himself.
Trump was impeached twice by a Democratic-led House in his first term, but was acquitted by the Republican-dominated Senate. Currently, the GOP also holds control of the House, so bringing new impeachment charges now would require Republican votes there. Similarly, sustaining any charges would take votes by a significant number of Senate Republicans.
Laurie Gorham, leader of the New London-region chapter of 50501, said that doesn’t deter her.
“We need to all stand up for what we believe in, and we can only do that where we are,” she said. “We don’t believe in that traitorous, evil man. We need to get rid of him, he’s horrible.”
Gorham said she’ll go to Courtney’s office in Norwich at 10 a.m., but has already been told that he won’t be available. His staff has said it would talk with those who go, she said.
Anti-Trump protests were common during his first term and even more so since his re-election. The impeachment gatherings were scheduled for the one-year anniversary of the first No Kings’ protest.
His poll numbers have suffered since the ICE shooting; the most recent YouGov poll puts his approval rating at 37%, and Nate Silver reports that across a wide series of polls it stands at 40.5%.
Nevertheless, he continues to have deep, seemingly unshakeable support from his base, which consistently dismisses protests against him as political theater or leftist extremism.
When Republican state Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato of Bristol wore the jacket with the words “ICE In” at the opening day of the legislative session in Hartford, House Speaker Matt Ritter warned her of the chamber rules against endorsement clothing on the House floor. But Republicans lawmakers were largely united in defending her, and accused Gov. Ned Lamont of politicizing the day by declaring that ICE should “go home.”