Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has reiterated that the call for President Donald Trump to be impeached or removed from office remains as urgent as ever after his genocidal threat toward Iran, regardless of the president’s announcement of a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday evening.
In a post on X, Ocasio-Cortez said the deal “changes nothing.”
“The President has threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat,” the lawmaker wrote. “He has launched a massive war of enormous risk and of catastrophic consequence without reason, rationale, nor Congressional authorization — which is as clear a violation of the Constitution as any.”
On Tuesday, just an hour and a half before his deadline to decimate Iran’s civilian infrastructure, Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a two-week ceasefire, with the potential to negotiate a long term end to the bombardments. During the pause in fighting, the U.S. would cease its bombardments of Iran, while Iran would reopen traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement came after Trump had, earlier on Tuesday, threatened to destroy all of Iran. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he said.
The statement was swiftly met with a deluge of calls for Trump to be impeached or removed via the 25th Amendment, which allows the president’s cabinet to declare him unfit. Over 70 lawmakers joined the calls, with the comment being so alarming that even far right figures like Candace Owens and Alex Jones called for Trump’s removal.
But the calls seemed to lose momentum after the threat didn’t come to pass on Tuesday, and as Democratic leaders declined to demand his removal. Some Democrats and liberal commentators even mocked Trump, taunting him with the “TACO” insult, standing for “Trump always chickens out,” or criticized him for the deal after it was announced.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Arizona), who is Iranian, said that it was callous to taunt Trump for not following through on his threats of genocide.
“I do not appreciate anyone — Democrat or Republican — taking this moment to make TACO jokes to say Trump ‘chickened out,’” Ansari said. “The president was threatening genocide against 90 million Iranians. I’m grateful there’s a ceasefire & scores of innocent people didn’t die tonight.”
Ocasio-Cortez said that it’s important that Democrats keep their foot on the gas. She said that Trump’s corruption and profit-seeking are also clear cases for Trump to be ousted.
“All of these incidents, and plenty more, have clearly driven our country past the threshold for impeachment or invocation of the 25th amendment. We cannot risk the world nor the wellbeing of our nation any longer,” she wrote. “Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the President must be removed from office. We are playing with the brink.”
Ocasio-Cortez was one of the lawmakers calling for Trump’s removal on Tuesday, saying that his “civilization” threat was a “threat of genocide” that “merits removal from office.”
Hellbound and Down 