'Impeach the motherf-----': Newly elected Democratic congresswoman vows to come for Donald Trump
A newly elected Democratic congresswoman has vowed to impeach Donald Trump, the US president, in an expletive-laced speech that has provoked outrage among Republicans.
Rashida Tlaib, who was sworn in on Thursday, said "we're gonna impeach the motherf-----" during a celebration party with supporters.
In a clip of the event circulated widely on social media on Friday, Ms Tlaib can be heard telling a crowd: "People love you. And you win.
"And when your son looks at you and says, 'Momma, look you won, bullies don't win.' And I said, 'Baby, they don't,' because we're gonna go in there and we're gonna impeach the motherf-----."
The US president responded in a tweet on Friday morning, saying: "How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong ... and is the most popular Republican in party history?"
He added: "They only want to impeach me because they know they can't win in 2020, too much success!"
Ms Tlaib, who represents a heavily Democratic district in Michigan, has defended the comments, saying "I will always speak truth to power".
"This is not just about Donald Trump. This is about all of us. In the face of this constitutional crisis, we must rise," she tweeted.
The congresswoman is a member of the ethnically diverse, progressive wing of the Democratic party which was sworn into the new Congress on Thursday.
The Justice Democrats group, which includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest ever congresswoman, and Ilhan Omar, the first member of Congress to wear a hijab, calls for members to reject corporate donations and describes itself as "working to change the Democratic Party from the inside".
A long-time critic of the Republican leader, Ms Tlaib was once arrested for heckling the then-candidate during his presidential campaign.
The morning of her entry into Congress, she labelled Mr Trump "a direct and serious threat to our country," in a co-authored op-ed for the Detroit Free Press. "We already have overwhelming evidence that the president has committed impeachable offences," she wrote. "The time for impeachment proceedings is now."
Nancy Pelosi, who became the House Speaker on Thursday after Democrats retook control of the chamber, attempted to row back Ms Tlaib's on-camera expletive. Ms Pelosi said "I wouldn't use that language" but added it was "nothing worse than the president has said".
The incident highlights an ongoing tension within the Democratic Party, with the progressive wing pressuring the party's leadership to begin impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump immediately.
Ms Pelosi and other moderate Democrats fear such a move may alienate voters and harm the party's chances of success in the 2020 presidential election. "I do think that we want to be unified and bring people together. Impeachment is a very divisive approach to take and we shouldn’t take it... without the facts," Ms Pelosi told MSNBC.
Meanwhile, an attempt to embarrass Ms Ocasio-Cortez by publishing an old video of her dancing appeared to backfire with social media users praising the 29-year-old congresswoman's moves.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described democratic socialist, has become a lightning rod for conservatives since her shock election victory against a ten-term congressman.
The 30-second video shared on Twitter showed Ms Ocasio-Cortez dancing on the roof of a building in a student production.
Well, @AOC is officially done. She’ll never recover from the world seeing her...
(watches video)
...dancing adorably and having fun with her friends in high school? https://t.co/0zENCzBinA— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 3, 2019
In a tweet, a user named AnonymousQ, whose account has since been deleted, wrote: “Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is”.
I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous.
Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too! ����
Have a great weekend everyone :) pic.twitter.com/9y6ALOw4F6— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 4, 2019
Twitter users responded by sharing their delight and praise for Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected to represent New York’s 14th congressional district in November's midterms.
Actor Russell Crowe said the dance was “fantastic”, and told his followers that “the more politicians we have like AOC the sooner we’ll all be dancing”.
The congresswoman later responded with a video of her dancing in her new office on Capitol Hill. "I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous," she tweeted. "Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too"
