It may seem like California billionaire Tom Steyer’s “Need to Impeach” campaign is farfetched.
But, in fact, he has drawn more than 5 million people to sign a petition to oust President Trump from office, a move that, maybe surprisingly, has rattled both Republicans and Democrats.
“I believe this year we’re in a struggle...for the soul of America,” Steyer told Cheddar Monday.
The hedge fund manager launched “Need to Impeach” in October, funding the cause out of his own pocket.
It revolves around what he calls Trump’s eight “impeachable offenses,” including obstruction of justice for firing former FBI Director James Comey and advocating violence for siding with neo-Nazis at the Charlottesville, Va., protests last year.
“I think that this is a lawless president,” said Steyer. “He’s somebody who from the very beginning had no respect for the rule of law.
“He’s a dangerous president, in the sense that he put our democracy at risk.”
Much of Steyer’s campaigning has been geared towards voters aged 35 years or younger. He hopes the strategy will ramp up pressure on lawmakers going into the November midterm elections to talk about the issue.
“People under 35 are the largest age cohort in American history. They vote at approximately half the rate of other citizens...and our attitude is if they don’t participate in our democracy, we don’t have a successful democracy.”
He points to the success of the student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., shooting as an example of younger voters determining the political conversation.
But impeaching Trump would be a massive undertaking, requiring both bipartisan support in Congress and a strong legal case.
There has never been an instance in U.S. history where an impeached president was removed from office. Only President Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton have ever been impeached. President Nixon resigned before he could be impeached and voted out of office by the Senate.
Steyer’s determination to pour his time and money into this campaign has given rise to questions of whether he himself will be running for President in 2020.
But Steyer says he isn’t thinking that far ahead.
“I’m not looking past November 6th, 2018, because I don’t know what’s going to happen [then].”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-man-behind-the-need-to-impeach-campaign).
Michelle Bond, CEO of the Association for Digital Asset Markets, joins Closing Bell, where she breaks down the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which would not only establish a regulatory structure for digital assets, but hand over crypto oversight to the CFTC instead of the SEC.
Sarah Warbelow, legal director for Human Rights Campaign, joins Cheddar News to discuss why advocates want to overturn the FDA's rule restricting gay and bisexual men from donating blood.
David Levine, elections integrity fellow with Alliance for Securing Democracy, joins Cheddar News to discuss Politico's bombshell finding revealing the RNC's plan to contest the elections.
A survey by the BMO Real Financial Progress Index found that 25 percent of Americans are pulling back on retirement contributions to offset the cost of inflation. This comes as market volatility reduced retirement savings with the S&P 500 shedding more than 12 percent this year alone.
As abortion rights take center stage in courts around the country, so do discussions about reproductive health. Signs and social media posts say things like "protect women's rights" and "her body, her choice," leaving others who need and receive abortions completely out of the picture. The potential end to Roe v. Wade would impact far more people and facilities than you may think. Cheddar News' Baker Machado breaks it all down.
Arkansas is planning to reshape itself by putting a strong emphasis on technology through computer science in the classroom. Governor Asa Hutchinson joined Cheddar News Buffa to discuss the state's efforts to promote itself as a future tech hub. “It gives young people such a huge opportunity for success," he noted. The term-limited governor also touched on the issue of gun ownership, offering up the idea of possibly raising the age limit to obtain rifles like the AR-15 to 21 instead of 18 as it currently stands.
The dating app Bumble has sponsored bills and pushed lawmakers to criminalize the online practice of sending unsolicited nudes or “cyberflashing." Payton Iheme, Bumble's head of public policy for the Americas, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the app was going after the harassing behavior beyond its own platform. "Now, while we went to work internally in the company, and we created something called private detector to automatically blur those images so the user can decide if they want to see them, there's nothing for the rest of the internet," she said. "And so that's why we went to work with these laws."
