As corporate media focus on the dramatic impeachment hearings being conducted in Washington, D.C., another impeachment story is unfolding: Activists around the country are preparing to mobilize on the eve of the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on impeaching President Trump. As witnesses testify in the nation’s capital, activists are making signs, getting protest permits and drafting speeches.
On the night before what will be a historic vote, people throughout the country will pick up their signs, grab their megaphones and head to the nearest office of their House representative or senator, or to their state Capitol building. There, they will rally, calling on lawmakers to support impeachment and sending the message: Nobody is above the law. Nobody.
Actions are planned in more than 270 cities in 43 states and Washington, D.C. They include cities in red and purple states — even cities and counties that voted for Trump in 2016, such as Boise, Idaho (the state voted for Trump by 59 percent to 27 percent); Gold Canyon, Arizona (the state went for Trump by 48 percent to 44 percent); Sherman, Texas (the state went for Trump by 52 percent to 43 percent); Springfield, Missouri (the state went for Trump by 56 percent to 38 percent); Muncie, Indiana (the state went for Trump by 56 percent to 37 percent); and Greensburg, Pennsylvania (the state went for Trump by 48 percent to 47 percent).
Still, we need to make sure people mobilize in all 50 states. Yes, the logistics are daunting. No one knows exactly when the House will vote. It’s hard to commit to doing something on a day yet to be determined. After all, while impeachment hearings go on, people still must go about their lives, schedule doctors’ appointments, plan kids’ soccer games and RSVP for work functions.
But mass action works, and we’ve done this before. With a coalition of more than 50 groups ranging from MoveOn.org and the Women’s March, to Daily Kos and People For the American Way, we at Public Citizen organized people for months to mobilize at a moment’s notice to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
So when Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions last November, more than 100,000 people throughout the country took to the streets to protect Mueller’s investigation. People came out and protested by tens of thousands soon after that when Attorney General William Barr refused to release the Mueller report.
Now, people are driven to take action because they are horrified by the mounting evidence that the president of the United States engaged in mobster-like behavior. They know that nobody is above the law — especially the president.
The facts are well-established. Trump bribed Ukraine; he withheld $400 million in desperately needed military aid to force the country’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, whom Trump perceives as a threat in the 2020 election. Trump, in short, pressured another country to interfere in a U.S. election, and then he tried to cover it up.
Even as the hearings were going on, Trump was tweeting, making threatening statements targeting former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Meanwhile, Republicans are hunkering down, protecting Trump by making outlandish claims and attacking the government workers who are speaking truth to power at the hearings.
That’s why we need more people in the streets. Lots more. Enough to make lawmakers realize that it is untenable for Trump to remain in office.
Get involved by RSVPing for a “Nobody is Above the Law” event at impeach.org or sign up to host one yourself.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy