'Impeach Trump': Essex County Freeholders Pass Resolution

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Some members of the all-Democrat Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders have a message for President Donald Trump: “We want you impeached.”

With three members absent from their Sept. 13 meeting, the freeholders unanimously passed a resolution last week “in support of impeaching United States President Donald J. Trump."

According to the Essex County Freeholder clerk's office, here was the vote record for the resolution:

• Britnee Timberlake - yes
• Brendan Gill - yes
• Patricia Sebold - yes
• Rufus Johnson - absent
• Lebby Jones - yes
• Rolando Bobadilla - absent
• Wayne Richardson - yes
• Leonard Luciano - absent
• Cynthia Toro - yes

“This is not about Democrat or Republican," President Britnee Timberlake said. "Rather it is about protecting the safety, freedom, and integrity of the constitution of our nation, promoting love not hate, embracing immigrants, people of all faiths, ethnicities, orientations and clearly denouncing anything which threatens to compromise that.”

The resolution cited several reasons for impeachment:

• The administration’s “Muslim ban”
• Termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enacted by former President Barack Obama in 2012
• The President’s withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Mitigation

The resolution also criticized the freezing of the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding, which allegedly halted the board’s “Clean Jobs Initiative,” an effort to train residents to clean up a variety of nasty toxins such as asbestos and lead, then provide them with job placement.

• See related article: Essex County's 'Clean Jobs' Initiative: Are Asbestos and Brownfields A Gold Mine?

In addition, the resolution criticized Trump’s “recent pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona,” and the “blaming of both peaceful advocates and hate groups for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as contributors to the increasing racist tenor in America.”

Do you think the freeholders’ resolution against Trump is unfair? Let us know why. Reach out with a letter to the editor to Eric.Kiefer@Patch.com and we'll post the best replies in a future article. (Please include your full name and town of residence.)

• See related article: Essex County Trump Supporters Speak: 'He Deserves Our Respect'

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Photo: Donald Trump, image via Gage Skidmore