In the wake of the United States House of Representatives’ expansion of its far-reaching impeachment probe of the Trump administration, Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke sounded the alarm Sunday that the US is in a constitutional crisis.
“Many of you are wondering what’s going on in Washington, D.C.,” said Clarke, representative for the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, in addressing the 36th Annual Gala and Awards Ceremony and the 40th anniversary of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ political independence from Great Britain of the Brooklyn-based group Vincentian-American Independent National Charities, Inc. (VINCI) at El Caribe Country Club in Brooklyn.
“It’s important that we not normalize what’s happening in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” added Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, referring to the address of the White House in Washington, D.C.
“We’re in the midst of a constitutional crisis in the United States of America, and we have to be sober about what’s taking place,” the congresswoman declared. “We should not, in any way, see this as a joke. Doing so will be to our own peril. Doing so will be nothing short of tyranny.
“In 2017, I knew then what many are fighting out now – that we have someone who’s corrupt,” she continued. “And there’s only one remedy for this is the US Constitution.
“I don’t want to make light of this,” Clarke stressed. “Donald Trump is quite capable of repeating what he did in 2016 of disrupting the American elections. So, I want everyone to focus to see what he’s doing, because desperate people will do desperate things.”
She also brought to patrons’ attention the Trump administration’s unrelenting onslaught on Caribbean and other immigrants, stating: “As we sit here, there are many being tracked by ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency).
“I want to encourage you, these days, know your power,” Clarke urged. “As we sit in the belly of the beast, know that you have the power to make the change.
“Let Donald Trump know that we’re no shrinking violet,” she said. “We’re not, in any form, fearful of his criminality.
“Don’t forget to vote,” Clarke added. “Fill out the Census form. We have a nation to build.”
In its fast-moving, expanding probe, the US House of Representatives on Monday issued subpoenas to the US Defense Department and the US Office of Management and Budget for documents that could determine whether President Trump’s decision to withhold security aid for Ukraine was linked to his bid to pressure the Government of Ukraine to investigate Trump’s Democratic political rival, former US Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.
Two senior US diplomats are also expected this week to speak with investigators, as the House seeks to validate claims, for President Trump’s possible impeachment, over his alleged actions with Ukraine.
Three committees in the House of Representatives are scrutinizing Trump’s actions in the wake of a whistle blower’s complaint.
But the US president has described the investigation as a “fraud, a scam and a witch hunt.”
“People understand it’s a fraud, it’s a scam, it’s a witch hunt, and all we do is keep fighting for the American people, because that’s all I do,” said Trump Monday at the White House.
