New York State 3rd District Congressman Thomas Suozzi recently added his name to a growing list of politicians calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Suozzi, whose district covers much of northern Nassau and Suffolk counties, as well as a morsel of Queens, came out in support of impeachment during an appearance on CNN on Sept. 23.
“I believe that it is my Constitutional duty and the duty of the United States Congress to move forward with impeachment inquiries,” Suozzi wrote on Facebook the following day. “Inaction would give this president (and future presidents) assurances that their misdeeds are immune from punishment. Inaction also would seriously diminish the role of the Congress as a co-equal branch of government determined to utilize its Article I powers.”
The former Nassau County Executive avoided publicly commenting on the issue for months while more and more House Democrats signed on to call for an impeachment inquiry. His turn comes following news that Trump had asked Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate his claim that former Vice President Joe Biden tried to orchestrate the dismissal of a Ukranian prosecutor to protect his son, Hunter, who served on the board of Ukranian natural gas company Burisma Holdings from 2014 to 2019. Pro-impeachment advocates have asserted that Trump’s call for an investigation from a foreign sovereign constitutes either “treason” or “high crimes and misdemeanors,” two impeachable offenses laid out in Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.
Joining him in calling for an impeachment inquiry was 5th District representative Gregory Meeks, a Democrat whose district mostly covers Queens, but also includes Valley Stream and Elmont.
Several of Suozzi’s nearby colleagues have weighed in one way or another on the impeachment calls. Democratic Congressman Kathleen Rice, whose 4th District covers Garden City, southwest Nassau and southeast Queens, was one of the earliest house members to publicly support an impeachment inquiry, doing so over Twitter back in April following the public release of the Mueller Report.
Suozzi’s Republican colleagues have voiced near-unanimous opposition to launching an impeachment inquiry. Second District representative Peter King has commented on several occasions that he believes the president has done nothing that could warrant impeachment.
“So far I’ve seen nothing that’s even remotely impeachable,” King said last week during a nationally-televised interview. “People can question the president’s judgment, they can say that it was inappropriate, perhaps. But to me, this is very exaggerated.”
When questioned further, King added he feels Trump “certainly has a right” to ask Ukraine’s president to investigate a domestic political opponent.
At this time, more than half of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, 224 Democrats and one independent, have publicly called for impeachment proceedings. Eleven Democrats and 183 Republicans remain opposed, while 14 more Republicans have yet to comment on the matter. A vote for impeachment in the House requires a simple majority to pass, though even if it does, most political experts feel it would fail in the Republican-controlled Senate.
