Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer said on Tuesday that Democrats who are not pushing for impeachment are "normalizing" President Donald Trump.
"The Founders gave us impeachment to answer a reckless, lawless, and dangerous president and every day that his behavior is accepted, every day that you don’t oppose it, it becomes enshrined as the way things are done. You have normalized this presidency, you have normalized his behavior," Steyer said in an interview for Politico’s "Off Message" podcast.
Steyer has been a major proponent of impeaching Trump since early on in his administration and has launched a multi-million dollar impeachment campaign.
Democratic leaders like House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) have opposed impeachment. Earlier this month, Pelosi said it is not the path for Democrats.
Meanwhile, some rank and file Democrats in the House of Representatives have pushed for impeachment. Back in April, House Democrats filed a motion to move forward with impeachment. The motion failed by a vote of 355-66, although the vote garnered eight more Democratic votes than a similar attempt only one month prior.
To the Democrats who oppose impeachment, Steyer has argued they are not representing their party's base. At a March town hall event, Steyer signaled out Rep. Don Beyer (D., Va.).
"I think for the Democrats, obviously … I mean, the representative of this district, Don Beyer, is not in favor of impeachment, even though I think there are 90,000 people from this district who signed our petition," Steyer said. "This is a heavily Democratic, progressive district."
Steyer compared his campaign to impeach Trump to the civil rights movement.
"Impeaching the President of the United States is upsetting the status quo. Anytime in American history that there has been an attempt to upset the status quo, there have been people within the status quo—within the establishment—saying, ‘It may be true, it may be something we should deal with, it may be important, but not now,’" Steyer said in the "Off Message" interview. "If you look at the civil rights movement, the pushback was not, ‘You’re not telling the truth,’ the pushback was, ‘We’re dealing with it in time. Stand down so we can deal with it in time.’"
"What we know is there are millions of Americans who don’t vote because they are not hearing the truth," Steyer said. According to him, almost 5.4 million people signed up with his "Need to Impeach" initiative. Steyer added that Democrats are ignoring those voices.
A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) told Politico that none of its candidates are campaigning on impeaching the president.
Steyer explained he no longer donates to the DCCC, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).