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Maxine Waters: Trump's Actions Are Leading Towards His Impeachment

February 6, 2017

Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) implied during a weekly press conference on Monday that President Donald Trump's actions are reaching impeachable offenses after just two weeks into office.

Waters was responding to a question about her recent remarks in which she declared that her "greatest desire" about Trump "is to lead him right into impeachment."

"Why is it appropriate to call for the impeachment of the president less than a month after him taking office?" a reporter asked Waters.

"I have not called for the impeachment yet," Waters said. She went on to try to clarify her earlier remarks.

"I think that he is leading himself into that kind of position where folks will begin to ask, 'What are we going to do?'" Waters said. "And the answer is going to be: eventually we've got to do something about him."

Waters cited Trump's relationship with and statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin as reasons that could warrant impeachment proceedings against the president.

Amid her critique of President Trump's relationship with Putin, Waters misidentified the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

"The fact that he is wrapping his arms around Putin while Putin is continuing to advance into Korea," she said, misstating the Crimean Peninsula as the Korean Peninsula.

Later in the press conference, reminiscent of former Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, Waters also appeared unable to remember the Syrian city of Aleppo. A reporter stepped in to help Waters name the war-torn city.

After Waters' remarks, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) quickly stepped up to the podium to state that Trump has not done anything yet that is grounds for impeachment in her opinion.

Waters posted a video to Twitter after the press conference, doubling down on her belief that Trump has already done enough in office to be on the path to impeachment.

"He has done enough in a short period of time for questions to be raised about whether or not he's acting in the best interest of this country," Waters said in the video.

This is not the first time that Waters has called for the impeachment of members of the executive branch. Near the end of President George W. Bush's second term, Waters was a vocal proponent of impeaching former Vice President Dick Cheney for decisions regarding the Iraq War.