Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff says he ‘strongly' agrees Trump needs to be impeached
'There is no doubt that this president's conduct has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment by the United States House of Representatives,' Ossoff told the audience at a town hall in Cobb County, adding later that there is 'no question' a number of Trump's actions have risen to the level of an impeachable offense.
Ossoff, who is perhaps the nation's most endangered Senate Democrat and who is charting a path for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024, is just the latest in his party to face critical questions during Congress' two-week break from Washington. Constituents have challenged members of both parties on a range of topics, but Democrats – who have held more public, in-person town halls – have faced deep frustrations from voters who have said the party is not doing enough to counter the president.
The senator told attendees that 'there is no magic button' he can push to unwind the Trump administration's dismantling of federal agencies and overhaul of the federal workforce – drawing an impassioned response from one voter.
'Why are there no calls for impeachment? This is unacceptable,' the woman shouted to cheers from the crowd. 'I will not live in an authoritative country, and neither will any of these people. You can do more! Think outside the box! He needs to be impeached.'
The woman, who said she has a father who is a retired Army colonel, a son with autism and kids who attend a Title 1 school, urged Ossoff to be 'brave.'
'I like you, and I will vote for you if you are brave, and you do what we need,' she said. 'We need him [Trump] to be impeached. We need him to be removed.'
Ossoff said he agreed, but the senator noted the unlikelihood of such an action in Congress, saying the only road to Trump's impeachment is through a majority vote in the GOP-controlled House.
'I agree with you, but as I said at the beginning, I also have no choice but to be candid with you about the situation that we face and the tools that are at our disposal,' he said. 'As strongly as I agree with you, ma'am, and I regret if this is an unwelcome response, but my job is to be honest with you. The only way to achieve what you want to achieve is to have a majority in the United States House of Representatives and … believe me, I'm working on it every single day, every single day.'
Another audience member identified herself as a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worker who had been fired as part of DOGE's mass layoffs. She accused Ossoff of being less supportive of public health than Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, despite Ossoff's position as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
'He [Warnock] didn't just listen,' she said. '[He] added resources for fired feds to his website and assigned dedicated staffers to assist us individually. Your office has put out a few press releases.'
Ossoff outlined his approach to what he described as the GOP's plans to scrap funding for public health from the budget at the state, national and global level.
'I will remain an outspoken champion of Georgia's CDC and continue to oppose — both through the legislative process, and as you noted, as an appropriator — the proposed deep cuts to the CDC budget, continue to vigorously oppose and expose the foolishness of these mass firings at the CDC, and champion the CDCs work nationally and internationally as a proud representative,' Ossoff said.
Ossoff also fielded a question about what he plans to do if Trump incites martial law to block the 2028 presidential election from happening.
'I have no doubt that this president, given his authoritarian impulses, his desire to rule as a king by decree, and his contempt for those who criticize and disagree with him, would relish the opportunity to try to invoke or wield emergency powers,' he said.
Ossoff said Trump's perceived desires 'cannot deter us' and went on to offer words of encouragement for constituents feeling fearful or hopeless.
'That cannot deter us as citizens from peacefully exercising every constitutional right to which we are entitled as American citizens, to speak out and to advocate for the kind of country that we want to live in, and we will not be deterred from exercising our right as citizens,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
25 minutes ago
- Politico
The Supreme Court just dropped a hint about its next big Voting Rights Act case
The order came in a case challenging Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts out of the state's six House seats. The court heard arguments in the case in March and had been expected to rule by June. But on June 27, the justices punted the case into their next term and ordered that it be reargued. Now, Friday's order loosely sketches the terrain on which the justices want further arguments: the claim that the longstanding practice of drawing majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Acts may be unconstitutional because of its focus on race in drawing district lines. The voters challenging Louisiana's map had already advanced that constitutional claim in the case, but the justices' call for further briefing on the issue suggests they want to consider the claim more fully. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark law passed during the civil rights era, generally prohibits race-based discrimination in voting laws and practices. In redistricting, the law is used to protect against racial gerrymandering that would unfairly dilute the voting power of racial and ethnic minority voters. States across the country routinely seek to comply with Section 2 by drawing congressional districts where minority voters can elect their chosen candidates. Louisiana's previous map contained only one majority-Black district, even though Black residents make up about a third of the state's population. After a court struck down that map for likely violating the Voting Rights Act because it diluted the power of Black voters, the state's Republican-controlled legislature drew the new map with two majority-Black districts. A group of voters — who self-identified as non-Black — challenged the new map. That's the case now before the Supreme Court. A ruling overturning the current map could result in Republicans picking up an additional congressional seat in Louisiana. The state's two majority-Black districts are both represented by Democrats, while the other four districts are represented by Republicans.
CBS News
25 minutes ago
- CBS News
Pfizer CEO attending $25 million fundraiser at Trump's golf club after president demands drug price cuts, sources say
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is among those expected at a fundraiser President Trump is attending Friday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, sources told CBS News. The fundraiser for the pro-Trump super political action committee MAGA Inc. aims to raise about $25 million, one of the sources said. One day prior to the event, Mr. Trump sent letters to pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, demanding they lower U.S. drug prices to more evenly match what other countries pay. The White House's letters to 17 drug companies, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, asked for commitments within 60 days to sell drugs for Medicaid patients and all new drugs at "most favored nation" rates. The president posted images of the letters to Truth Social. Mr. Trump signed an executive order in May telling federal officials to draw up "most favored nation" regulations unless pharmaceutical companies made progress toward cutting prices. This week's letters — which were addressed to Bourla and the other CEOs — accused the drugmakers of promising "more of the same" since then. The president said Friday he's "gone to war with the drug companies and, frankly, other countries" on the drug price issue. "I think we're going to be very successful fairly soon. We'll have drug prices coming down by 500, 600 800 even 1,200 percent," Mr. Trump said in an interview with Newsmax on Friday afternoon. The high cost of prescription drugs has vexed both parties for decades. Proposals to tie drug prices for U.S. patients to the typically much-lower rates charged in other developed countries have floated around for years, but the idea has faced some legal pushback. Meanwhile, drugmakers argue price caps could discourage innovation by making it harder to pay for research and development for new drugs. The industry also argues that Americans tend to have access to more groundbreaking drugs than residents of foreign countries with stricter price regulations — and says high drug prices are just one part of a broader trend of higher healthcare spending in the U.S. Bourla has engaged with Mr. Trump in the past. Pfizer was one of the drugmakers that was picked to rapidly develop COVID-19 vaccines in the first Trump administration's "Operation Warp Speed." And two weeks before Mr. Trump's second inauguration, Bourla and other Pfizer executives traveled to Mar-A-Lago for meetings, the Financial Times has previously reported. CBS News has reached out to Pfizer and the White House for comment.
Associated Press
25 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Not just Big Bird: Things to know about the Center for Public Broadcasting and its funding cuts
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and television stations as well as programs like 'Sesame Street' and 'Finding Your Roots,' said Friday that it would close after the U.S. government withdrew funding. The organization told employees that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A small transition team will stay until January to finish any remaining work. The private, nonprofit corporation was founded in 1968 shortly after Congress authorized its formation. It now ends nearly six decades of fueling the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and emergency alerts about natural disasters. Here's what to know: Losing funding President Donald Trump signed a bill on July 24 canceling about $1.1 billion that had been approved for public broadcasting. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense, and conservatives have particularly directed their ire at NPR and PBS. Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced concern about what the cuts could mean for some local public stations in their state. They warned some stations will have to close. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday reinforced the policy change by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill. How it beganCongress passed legislation creating the body in 1967, several years after then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow described commercial television a 'vast wasteland' and called for programming in the public interest. The corporation doesn't produce programming and it doesn't own, operate or control any public broadcasting stations. The corporation, PBS, NPR are independent of each other as are local public television and radio stations. Rural stations hit hard Roughly 70% of the corporation's money went directly to 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country. The cuts are expected to weigh most heavily on smaller public media outlets away from big cities, and it's likely some won't survive. NPR's president estimated as many as 80 NPR stations may close in the next year. Mississippi Public Broadcasting has already decided to eliminate a streaming channel that airs children's programming like 'Caillou' and 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood' 24 hours a day. Maine's public media system is looking at a hit of $2.5 million, or about 12% of its budget, for the next fiscal year. The state's rural residents rely heavily on public media for weather updates and disaster alerts. In Kodiak, Alaska, KMXT estimated the cuts would slice 22% from its budget. Public radio stations in the sprawling, heavily rural state often provide not just news but alerts about natural disasters like tsunamis, landslides and volcanic eruptions. From Big Bird to war documentaries The first episode of 'Sesame Street' aired in 1969. Child viewers, adults and guest stars alike were instantly hooked. Over the decades, characters from Big Bird to Cookie Monster and Elmo have become household favorites Entertainer Carol Burnett appeared on that inaugural episode. She told The Associated Press she was a big fan. 'I would have done anything they wanted me to do,' she said. 'I loved being exposed to all that goodness and humor.' Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. started 'Finding Your Roots' in 2006 under the title 'African American Lives.' He invited prominent Black celebrities and traced their family trees into slavery. When the paper trail ran out, they would use DNA to see which ethnic group they were from in Africa. Challenged by a viewer to open the show to non-Black celebrities, Gates agreed and the series was renamed 'Faces of America,' which had to be changed again after the name was taken. The show is PBS's most-watched program on linear TV and the most-streamed non-drama program. Season 10 reached nearly 18 million people across linear and digital platforms and also received its first Emmy nomination. Grant money from the nonprofit has also funded lesser-known food, history, music and other shows created by stations across the country. Documentarian Ken Burns, celebrated for creating the documentaries 'The Civil War,' 'Baseball' and 'The Vietnam War', told PBS NewsHour said the corporation accounted for about 20% of his films' budgets. He said he would make it up but projects receiving 50% to 75% of their funding from the organization won't. Influence of shows Children's programing in the 1960s was made up of shows like 'Captain Kangaroo,' ''Romper Room' and the violent skirmishes between 'Tom & Jerry.' 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' mostly taught social skills. 'Sesame Street' was designed by education professionals and child psychologists to help low-income and minority students aged 2-5 overcome some of the deficiencies they had when entering school. Social scientists had long noted white and higher income kids were often better prepared. One of the most widely cited studies about the impact of 'Sesame Street' compared households that got the show with those who didn't. It found that the children exposed to 'Sesame Street' were 14% more likely to be enrolled in the correct grade level for their age at middle and high school. Over the years, 'Finding Your Roots' showed Natalie Morales discovering she's related to one of the legendary pirates of the Caribbean and former 'Saturday Night Live' star Andy Samberg finding his biological grandmother and grandfather. It revealed that drag queen RuPaul and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker are cousins, as are actors Meryl Streep and Eva Longoria. 'The two subliminal messages of 'Finding Your Roots,' which are needed more urgently today than ever, is that what has made America great is that we're a nation of immigrants,' Gates told the AP. 'And secondly, at the level of the genome, despite our apparent physical differences, we're 99.99% the same.'
