Martin Luther King Jr. Would Have Wanted Trump Impeached, Maxine Waters Suggests

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Representative Maxine Waters said today that Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted President Trump impeached. Getty Images

Representative Maxine Waters (D–California) suggested on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that if the civil rights hero were still alive he would have fought to impeach President Donald Trump.

"If MLK was alive today, he'd be marching not only for civil rights and protecting voting rights, but to urge Members of Congress to accept their responsibility to save the U.S. from a dangerous man who has no respect for our Constitution and no concern for strengthening our democracy," she wrote on Twitter.

"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have encouraged every responsible human being to march for justice, to march for peace, and most of all, to march for the impeachment of Donald Trump."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have encouraged every responsible human being to march for justice, to march for peace, and most of all, to march for the impeachment of Donald Trump. #ThankYouMLK50

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) January 15, 2018

If MLK was alive today, he'd be marching not only for civil rights & protecting voting rights, but to urge Members of Congress to accept their responsibility to save the U.S. from a dangerous man who has no respect for our Constitution & no concern for strengthening our democracy

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) January 15, 2018

Waters has long urged for President Trump's impeachment.

During BET's "Black Girls Rock!" awards ceremony in August, she told Trump that "not only will we resist you, we will impeach you." In November, she began an "Impeach 45" chant at the Glamour Woman of the Year awards. And last week, she responded to Trump's alleged "shithole" comments by writing that "Congress has a constitutional responsibility to impeach him without delay."

Waters has said she will skip the President's State of the Union speech later this month. "I don't trust him, I don't appreciate him and I wouldn't waste my time ... listening to what he has to say," she said on MSNBC last week. "He does not deserve my attention."

Waters wasn't the only member of Congress thinking about how Dr. King would have responded to Trump.

On Monday Morning, Georgia Representative John Lewis, a civil rights leader who marched with Dr. King in the 1960s, said on The View that King would have boycotted President Trump's inauguration ceremony.

He also disagreed with Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Bernice King. "Unlike some people, my father would try to meet with President-elect Trump," she said in early 2017, "because he recognizes that in order to move the agenda of justice, freedom, and equality forward, you can't just protest and resist. You also have to negotiate as well."

Lewis told The View that he "knew [Bernice's] father very, very well. Meeting him, working with him, and getting to know him—I think he would have taken the same position that I did."

But Lewis suggested that if Dr. King were still alive, Trump would have never been elected.

"Dr. King would have been able to lead us to a different place and our country would have been different and the world community would have been different," he said.

President Trump has spoken out against Representative Lewis in the past, tweeting that "Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S."

Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017

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About the writer


Nicole Goodkind is a political reporter with a focus on Congress. She previously worked as a reporter for Yahoo Finance, ... Read more

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