Trump call with Georgia secretary of state draws bipartisan criticism
FOX News chief White House correspondent John Roberts joins ‘Special Report’ with the latest on leaked audio
A renewed interest in impeaching President Trump from members of the so-called "Squad" is not catching on among top House Democrats.
Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have both accused Trump of committing an impeachable offense after he urged Georgia's Republican secretary of state to reverse the state's election results.
AOC SLAMS TRUMP'S CALL WITH GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE AS AN 'IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE'
"I absolutely think it's an impeachable offense and if it was up to me, there would be articles on the floor, quite quickly," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Sunday as the new session of Congress began. "He is attacking our very election."
However, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a high-ranking House Democrat, downplayed such an idea on Monday, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President-elect Joe Biden have not spoken out about such a possibility.
"If today is Jan. 4, there's 16 days until Joe Biden is the next president of the United States of America," Jeffries told reporters. "We are in a deadly pandemic. It is a once-in-a-century public health crisis. The chaos, confusion, conflict, and corruption that Donald Trump has inflicted upon this country is something to be evaluated by the historians at this particular point in time."
TRUMP PRESSURES GEORGIA'S RAFFENSPERGER TO 'FIND' MORE VOTES IN LEAKED CALL
"There were a series of steps that were taken by Donald Trump and his team that resulted in him being impeached for his corrupt abuse of power," Jeffries said. "With respec [to] what has currently taken place, I have not viewed the transcript. We're not looking backward, we're looking forward to the inauguration of Joe Biden on Jan. 20."
FILE – In this Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Jeffries said House Democrats' focus will "remain on addressing the public health crisis and the economic crisis that has resulted."
In leaked audio, Trump seemed to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to deliver him a victory in the state over President-Elect Joe Biden.
Trump has maintained unfounded claims that he won the state "very substantially."
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS WANT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP CALL WITH GEORGIA ELECTION OFFICIALS
"I won this election by hundreds of thousands of votes. There's no way I lost Georgia. There's no way," Trump said on the call. "So, look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."
The leaked audio prompted a swift response from progressive Democrats.
"The president’s effort to openly overturn our election results by putting pressure on the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia is a crime, plain and simple," Omar said in a statement. "The constitutional remedy for a high crime and misdemeanor committed by the president of the United States is clear: impeachment."
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Omar said the constitution did not "make exceptions" for individuals based on the amount of time they had left in office, which is just over two weeks for Trump, and that he must be held accountable for efforts to "overthrow our democracy."
Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives and then acquitted in the Senate in February 2020 on abuse of power and obstruction of justice charges.
Fox News' Megan Henney contributed to this report.
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