September 24, 2019

John Lewis Just Delivered a Rousing Call for Impeachment

“There comes a time when you have to be moved by the spirit of history to take action to protect and preserve the integrity of our nation.”

Michael Brochstein/Zuma

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Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) delivered a call action for the House of Representatives on Tuesday to impeach President Donald Trump over the Ukraine scandal.

“We cannot delay. We must not wait. Now is the time to act,” the longtime civil rights leader said on the floor of the House. “We will never find the truth unless we use the power given to the House of Representatives and the House alone to begin an official investigation, as dictated by the Constitution.”

Lewis is one of 156 representatives—155 Democrats and one independent—who support impeachment as of Tuesday. Support for impeachment has grown since Trump admitted to discussing former Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden on a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July. Trump insisted that there was “no quid pro quo” in the conversation, but he withheld $391 million in military aid to Ukraine in the days leading up to the call, the Washington Post reports.

Lewis, one of the Big Six civil rights leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington, voted no on all four articles of impeachment raised against former President Bill Clinton in 1998. Trump’s actions, he said, threaten the future of democracy.

“There comes a time when you have to be moved by the spirit of history to take action to protect and preserve the integrity of our nation,” he said. “I believe I truly believe the time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president has come. To delay or to do otherwise would betray the foundation of our democracy.”

Watch Lewis’ statement below:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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