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Rep. Steve Cohen seeks to impeach President Trump after Charlottesville

Rep. Steve Cohen announced Thursday he will file articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over Trump’s comments about the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Steve Cohen announced Thursday he will file articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over Trump’s comments about the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va.

“After the president’s comments on Saturday, August 12 and again on Tuesday, August 15, in response to the horrific events in Charlottesville, I believe the President should be impeached and removed from office,” the Memphis Democrat said.

“Instead of unequivocally condemning hateful actions by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Klansmen following a national tragedy, the president said ‘there were very fine people on both sides.’ There are no good Nazis. There are no good Klansmen.”

Trump has “failed the test of moral leadership,” said Cohen, who is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

“No moral president would ever shy away from outright condemning hate, intolerance and bigotry,” he said. “No moral president would ever question the values of Americans protesting in opposition of such actions, one of whom was murdered by one of the white nationalists.”

More: Trump's comments may threaten Charlottesville legal case

Trump is facing a political firestorm for doubling down on his claims that "both sides" were at fault for the violence last weekend in Charlottesville, even after one alleged white nationalist was charged with murder after ramming his car into a crowd of protesters, killing a 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

In a raucous press conference on Tuesday, Trump said that left wing groups were just as violent as white supremacists and declined to say whether one was worse than the other. "You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent," Trump said. "And nobody wants to say that. But I’ll say it right now."

Many lawmakers – Democrats and Republicans – have distanced themselves from Trump's remarks, pointing out that white supremacist groups came armed with guns, torches, and Nazi flags, chanting racist and anti-Jewish slogans.

“President Trump has shown time and time again that he lacks the ethical and moral rectitude to be president of the United States,” Cohen said.

“Neo-Nazis and the KKK are domestic terrorists,” Cohen said. “If the president can’t recognize the difference between these domestic terrorists and the people who oppose their anti-American attitudes, then he cannot defend us.”

Cohen is not the first member of Congress to move to impeach Trump.

Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Al Green D-Texas, introduced an article of impeachment in June.

Cohen and 23 House Democrats also filed a no confidence resolution against Trump in June, citing a litany of what they say is unacceptable behavior by the president of the United States.

The list included Trump’s questionable business deals, his firing of FBI Director James Comey, his cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his unfettered attacks on the press, his derogatory comments about women’s looks and his Twitter tirades against political opponents and anyone else who challenges him.

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