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DNC boss Perez appears to sidestep impeachment question
Published April 18, 2019
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, Tom Perez, seemed to sidestep a question on Thursday about whether it was wise for his party to file articles of impeachment in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
"Do you think politically, as the chairman of the Democratic Party, that that is the right thing for the Democratic Party to do?" Fox News host Bret Baier asked during his show, "Special Report."
Perez didn't give a "yes" or "no" answer, instead saying that Democrats could "walk and chew gum" by pushing policies, like coverage for pre-existing conditions, while conducting effective oversight in Congress. "I think that there are more questions to be asked here," Perez said after Baier repeated the question.
"We don't know whether obstruction occurred. There were 954 redactions," he said in reference to the investigative report released by the Justice Department earlier in the day.
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While Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report did not formally accuse Trump of obstructing justice, it also didn't "exonerate" the president. Instead, the report listed 10 items concerning potential obstruction — details that congressional Democrats could well use to continue pressing the administration.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has already requested that Mueller testify before his committee, and said he would subpoena the full, unredacted report. Although some Democrats have previously raised the prospect of impeachment, the House Democratic leadership recently rejected the idea.
Impeachment proceedings could arise out of further investigation into whether the president committed obstruction of justice. And according to Perez, that was still a possibility. He pointed to Mueller's own language, which indicated his team wasn't confident that Trump hadn't obstructed justice.
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"The notion that there's no obstruction is just hogwash," Perez asserted. He also suggested that Rudy Giuliani, the president's attorney, jumped the gun in arguing that the president didn't have corrupt intent.
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