ST. PAUL — Hundreds gathered outside the Minnesota Capitol on Tuesday, Dec. 17, to support the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
The rally comes on the eve of a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach the president and is part of a national campaign to urge members of Congress to support the articles of impeachment.
Bundled up against the cold and holding posters and glowing signs that read, "Impeach Trump" and "No one is above the law," around 400 demonstrators sang songs with lyrics like "We wish you would leave the White House" and chanted, "Impeach and remove."
"We are here for a fundamental reason and that reason is that we are a fundamental power in our democracy. That's why we're here today," Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, said. "The impeachment of Donald Trump is about making clear that in America, no one is above the law."
Members of the U.S. House on Wednesday are set to take up two articles of impeachment against Trump alleging the president engaged in the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
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Trump could become the third president in U.S. history to have a majority of representatives find him guilty of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" as set out in the Constitution. If approved, the articles would move to the Senate for an impeachment trial there.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cali., on Tuesday, the president criticized the move to hold a vote on impeachment, saying the process has been invalid and that he has had less due process than those tried during the Salem Witch Trials.
Minnesota's House delegation is expected to break down largely on party lines, with Republicans opposing the impeachment and Democrats supporting it. U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, (DFL-District 7), whose district favored Trump by 30 percentage points in 2016, has said he will likely oppose the impeachment unless presented with additional evidence.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week took fire from various groups after he said he was working in "total coordination" with the White House on the impeachment proceedings. And on Tuesday, McConnell on the Senate floor held up the House's impeachment letter as "rushed" and a "slapdash work product."
