Congressman Al Green of Texas, after becoming the first Capitol Hill lawmaker to officially call for impeachment charges against US President Donald Trump, was the recipient of death threats and hate speech after his Wednesday call to cite the president for obstruction of justice.
"I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the President of the United States of America for obstruction of justice," according to Green's official statement. "I do not do this for political purposes, Mr. Speaker. I do this because I believe in the great ideals that this country stands for — liberty and justice for all, the notion that we should have government of the people, by the people, for the people. I do it because, Mr. Speaker, there is a belief in this country that no one is above the law, and that includes the President of the United States of America."
Following his Wednesday motion to begin the proceedings to impeach Trump, Green was deluged with death threats and hate speech, many by telephone, which he recorded and played back for attendees at a town hall gathering in Houston on Saturday.
Although Green observed that most of the telephone calls were supportive of the Texas lawmaker's move to impeach the strikingly unpopular president, many callers were enraged, and included death threats and racial slurs reminiscent of the dark days of segregation in the US.
As reported by the Houston Chronicle, Green said to those attending the meeting, "Actual recordings will be played and you can decide for yourself what we're dealing with," before playing back the phone calls.
"You ain't going to impeach nobody, you [expletive]. Try it and we'll lynch all you [expletive] [N-word] and you'll be hanging from a tree," stated one caller.
"We've got an impeachment for you and it's going to be yours," said another caller, who added, "We'll give you a short trial before we hang your [N-word] [expletive]."
Green was not dissuaded, stating, "It does not deter us. We are not going to be intimidated. We are not going to allow this to cause us to deviate from what we believe to be the right thing to do and that is to proceed with the impeachment of President Trump," according to the Houston Chronicle.
The call for Trump's impeachment comes after information was revealed on Tuesday that the president asked then-FBI Director James Comey in February to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a request considered by many lawmakers to be evidence of an obstruction of justice.
