Impeach Trump, New Jersey Activists Urge At ‘Convention For Justice’

NEWARK, NJ — Impeach Donald Trump – again. That was the call from hundreds of advocacy groups when they recently gathered for a “convention for justice and resistance” in New Jersey’s largest city.

President Trump is the only federal official to be impeached twice. He was acquitted on all counts by the Senate in both cases.

Now, a coalition of activists in the Garden State are calling for a third impeachment trial.

Last month, a delegation of more than 250 social justice advocates gathered at Essex County College’s campus in Newark for the Martin Luther King People’s Convention for Justice and Resistance. The event was endorsed by 287 separate organizations.

According to the People’s Organization For Progress, which spearheaded the April 26 convention, the battle to impeach Trump for a third time was one of the major points ratified on the agenda.

U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan introduced a new set of articles of impeachment against Trump in late April.

Thanedar, a Democrat, cited a “sweeping abuse of power, flagrant violations of the Constitution, and acts of tyranny that undermine American democracy and threaten the rule of law” as reasons for impeachment.

For now, the effort may be derailed, with a leading Democratic lawmaker telling reporters that “we don't have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs, and so this is not an exercise that we're willing to undertake.”

A wave of Republicans immediately derided the latest impeachment effort against Trump, including the president himself.

“The Democrats are really out of control,” Trump wrote on social media, adding that “these radical left lunatics are into the ‘impeachment thing’ again.”

The president suggested that the Republican-controlled House should “start to think about expelling them from Congress.”

“It’s the same playbook that they used in my first term, and Republicans are not going to allow them to get away with it again,” Trump added.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston said the president’s recent actions are “firmly rooted in the will of the American people.”

“Their desperate impeachment stunt is nothing more than a reckless political act that the American people see right through,” Huston said.

Multiple websites have been launched in support of a third impeachment, including impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org and impeachtrumpagain.org.

COMMMON GROUND: ACTIVISTS UNITE AT CONVENTION

Apart from the Trump administration, other common ground at the April 26 convention included living wages, guaranteed annual income, Medicare For All, reparations for African Americans, same-day voter registration, free college and the abolition of student debt.

Organizers also supported resolutions to stop federal budget cuts to public education, create more affordable housing and beef up rent control, support union organizing and clean energy, protect free speech and immigrant rights, and repeal “billionaire and corporate tax cuts.”

The event included a gubernatorial candidate forum, which was attended by Democratic hopefuls Ras Baraka, Steve Sweeney and Steven Fulop’s recently announced running mate, Sheena Collum, as well as Stephen Zielinski, the Green Party candidate.

A resolution was passed for similar conventions to be held annually for the next three years.

A meeting to evaluate the convention and consider future action will take place at Monday, May 5 at 6 p.m. at Bethany Baptist Church, 275 West Market Street in Newark. For more information about the meeting or upcoming activities, contact the People’s Organization For Progress at (973) 801-0001.

“We have moved from a march of resistance to a convention for continued resistance,” said Charles Hall, president of Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union UFCW, one of the organizations that endorsed the convention.

“The purpose of the convention was to develop an agenda for justice and resistance to efforts – including those of the Trump administration – to overturn nearly a century of social progress,” agreed Lawrence Hamm, a longtime activist and founder of the POP said.

“We accomplished that goal,” said Hamm, a former U.S. Senate candidate.

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