U.S. Rep. Al Green joins California Democrat's effort to impeach President Trump

WASHINGTON – A California Democrat filed an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump Wednesday in a longshot bid to remove the president from office.

Democratic leaders have distanced themselves from the efforts to impeach Trump, believing it serves only to energize the president's supporters. Rep. Brad Sherman's resolution has one co-sponsor, fellow Democrat Al Green of Texas.

Sherman and Green are accusing Trump of obstructing obstructed justice by trying to impede the investigation of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, first by threatening, and then firing, former FBI Director James Comey.

"This is not about my colleagues. It's not about Democrats. It’s about democracy. It's about government of the people, by the people, for the people,” Green told KPRC.

Sherman acknowledges that filing the article is "the first step on a very long road."

"But if the impulsive incompetency continues, then eventually -- many, many months from now -- Republicans will join the impeachment effort," Sherman said in a statement.

The effort has little chance of success in the Republican-led House. Sherman doesn't even have the backing of many fellow Democrats.

Sherman filed the article a day after the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., acknowledged that he met with a Russian lawyer during the campaign. The lawyer promised damaging information from the Russian government about Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. said he received no information about Clinton at the meeting.

The president has questioned his own intelligence agencies and whether the Russians actually interfered in the election. However, federal authorities say they have definitive evidence that the Kremlin meddled in the U.S. presidential election.

Green and Sherman are the only members of Congress of either party publicly supporting impeachment.

A majority of the House of Representatives would have to vote for it, and with Republicans controlling the House, there’s not much chance of that happening.

At the same time, Democrats are wary of even broaching the subject.

"It's a question of conscious for me and for my colleagues and I trust they will do what their conscious will dictate and I will do a similar thing," Green said.

Wednesday afternoon, Trump's spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it, “utterly ridculous.”

Rice University Political Scientist Mark Jones said the measure is little more than political posturing to the democratic base.

Green and Sherman say they’ll ensure the measure comes to the House floor for a vote.

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