Congress should move forward with impeachment proceedings against Trump: Biden

Leading Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden has said that the US Congress should move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump if he blocks efforts to investigate matters "left undone" by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election. 

Biden said in an interview  on Tuesday that Democrats would have "no alternative" but to impeach the Republican president if he were to block a congressional investigation into whether he obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.

"There were about seven or eight thing that were left undone, [Mueller] was not in his purview to investigate, he thought," the former US vice president said during the interview with ABC's "Good Morning America". "The Congress is attempting to take that up."

"If in fact they block the investigation, they have no alternative but to go to the only other constitutional resort they have, [which] is impeachment," he added. "But my job, in the meantime, is to ensure that he's not back as president of the United States."

Last week, Biden's fellow 2020 primary contender, Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), said that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings now.

"We have very good reason to believe that there is an investigation that has been conducted which has produced evidence that tells us that this president and his administration engaged in obstruction of justice. I believe Congress should take the steps toward impeachment," Harris said at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on April 22.

Trump has said that he is not worried about impeachment, saying that “only high crimes” can lead to impeachment.

Trump said last week his actions did not meet the impeachment threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors” laid out in the Constitution.

A number of Democrats have called for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, despite warnings some that the effort is likely to be unsuccessful and could divide the country.

Mueller’s two-year investigation failed determine that the Trump campaign collude with Russia during the 2016 election, but it detailed 10 cases of potential obstruction of justice but ultimately did not charge Trump with a crime.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading contender in the 2020 field, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro have called for impeachment proceedings against Trump. Congressional Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have also called for Trump’s ousting.

Ocasio-Cortez and Omar believe the findings detailed in Mueller’s report contradict Trump’s claims that he has been “totally exonerated” from any criminal wrongdoing.

PressTV-A look at how to remove a US president by impeachment

Investigations involving President Donald Trump have raised the possibility that Congress could seek to remove him from office using the impeachment process set out in the Constitution.

Ocasio-Cortez has vowed to support impeachment proceedings launched by fellow Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

Meanwhile, Omar has said Congress has a “constitutional responsibility” to act.

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