California Democratic Representative Maxine Waters is a fierce, long-time opponent of Trump. Waters started calling for Trump's impeachment in February 2017, just a month after he assumed office, cycling through justifications like nozzles on a vacuum cleaner, depending on what was on the agenda.
First, it was the notorious "Russian collusion," which the US House Intelligence Committee recently concluded didn't happen, closing its investigation. Then, it was his waffling over condemning white supremacist violence in Virginia in August 2017. In early 2018, the bugbear became Trump's "shithole countries" comment about several African and Caribbean nations. Now, it's Trump's wanton abrogation of the Iran deal. The reasons change, but the goal remains: impeachment, impeachment, impeachment.
"Trump, further isolating the United States, thinks he knows better than our negotiators and all of our global allies who agreed to the Iran deal," she tweeted May 9. "How long do we have to suffer his gigantic ego and narcissistic behavior? Impeachment is the only answer."
On Tuesday, Trump declared that the US should pull out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying Washington would not only reinstate the anti-Iran sanctions lifted as part of the deal, but will also "be instituting the highest level of economic" restrictions against Tehran.
This move has been criticized by a number of countries, including the other signatories to the deal — Germany, France, the UK, Russia and China. The United Nations has condemned it, and several heads of states and governments traveling to the US in recent weeks tried to personally persuade Trump not to torch the deal.
Even Waters' fellow California representative, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, had to block Waters' energetic efforts, saying that the push to impeach Trump was a "gift" for Republicans ahead of crucial midterm elections in November, when all 435 members of the House are up for reelection along with one third of the US Senate.
"On the political side, I think it's a gift to the Republicans," Pelosi said during a press briefing in April, according to The Hill. "We want to talk about what they're doing to undermine working families in our country and what we are doing to increase their payrolls and lower their costs."