LOS ANGELES (CNS) — MoveOn and Common Cause held a series of rallies across the country and in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, Dec. 17, to call for the impeachment and removal of President Donald Trump from office.
The rallies took place one day before the House of Representatives voted on two articles of impeachment against Trump, alleging he abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress.
The House Judiciary Committee approved the two articles Friday, Dec. 13, and the full chamber is expected to approve them, sending the impeachment process to the Republican-dominated Senate for a trial.
Locations for the rallies in Los Angeles included the Sherman Oaks Galleria; Grand Park, across the street from Los Angeles City Hall; and the Burbank Five Points Art Monument.
“If we simply turn a blind eye to Trump’s behavior or let him walk clean, that is a sign for the next president, and those who follow, that they can get away with abuses of power, obstruction of justice and violating the Constitution,” California Common Cause Executive Director Kathay Feng said.
“Staying silent is not an option.”
Trump, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and assailed the campaign against him as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax,” on Tuesday sent a six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasting the impeachment effort.
“This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history,” Trump wrote.
He insisted the Articles of Impeachment against him “include no crimes, no misdemeanors and no offenses whatsoever.”
“By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution and you are declaring open war on American Democracy,” Trump wrote.
Josh Rubenstein, spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said the department is aware of the rallies.
On Dec. 14, a confrontation erupted when anti-impeachment protesters disrupted an event in Glendale featuring Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank.
Schiff was speaking at a town hall celebrating the recent passage of a bipartisan bill he co-authored recognizing mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.
Shortly after he took the podium, a group of pro-Trump protesters started shouting and calling him a liar. Organizers of the event tried to calm them down, but police eventually removed the demonstrators from the room.
Schiff is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and was a central figure during the impeachment inquiry earlier this month.