impeachment

Vt. Woman Welcomes Announcement of Impeachment Articles

Susan Ohanian of Charlotte introduced a motion at her community’s 2017 Town Meeting Day that asked her neighbors to urge Congress to impeach the president

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A Vermont woman welcomed Thursday's news that the U.S. House will move forward with articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, because she has a unique connection to the topic.

In March of 2017, when the president had only been in office a few months, Susan Ohanian formally urged her neighbors at Charlotte's annual town meeting to ask Congress to look into removing Trump.

Ohanian's argument at the time was that the president's business dealings in the U.S. and overseas meant he could profit off the office.

"They applauded after the vote," Ohanian said Thursday, remembering the passage of her Town Meeting Day motion that made people in Charlotte among the very first to take a public stance on impeachment.

Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her caucus would pursue articles of impeachment, believing the president abused his power and jeopardized national security in the way he talked with Ukraine's leader.

"It's heartbreaking, but the president gave us no choice," the Democrat from California said.

Ohanian, an author and retired teacher, closely watched news reports of the announcement.

"I hope that the public can begin to see what's really at stake so that it doesn't just become the Democrats versus the Republicans," Ohanian said Thursday. "That's a real danger. There's something very basic at stake here. And I'm not a Democrat."

Noting she identifies as an Independent, Ohanian knows the next few weeks will likely be a divisive stretch, politically.

In a tweet Thursday, Trump called the Democrats the "do nothing, radical left," and added that he thinks they have nothing to go on.

The president's allies are rallying behind him.

"This is the weakest, the thinnest impeachment in the history of America," Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican House minority leader, said following Rep. Pelosi's announcement.

Ohanian, reflecting on how she raised her voice early for impeachment, said Thursday we are in a critical moment for the country and Constitution — one she hopes Congress will treat with the utmost seriousness.

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