A black congressman from Texas has been on the receiving end of some horrifically racist slurs after he vowed to pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump earlier this week. Texas Rep. Al Green played constituents a few recordings of some of the voicemail messages he received over the past few days. He later posted those recordings on YouTube.
“You’ll be hanging from a tree,” one caller said. Another warns that “you ain’t going to impeach nobody. Try it and we will lynch all of you.” Not surprisingly, the messages are filled with racial slurs, and the n-word is frequently uttered.
“It does not deter us,” Green said of the threats. “We are not going to be intimidated. We are not going to allow this to cause us to deviate from what we believe to be the right thing to do and that is to proceed with the impeachment of President Trump.”
Green told constituents in southwest Houston that he wanted them to hear the kind of threats he is receiving in part to explain the high level of security at his townhall meeting. Police officers were visible around the townahll and all participants were checked by security. “When a person talks about lynching you, we think that’s a pretty serious threat,” he said.
Green was the first House Democrat to publicly call for Trump’s impeachment. “I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America for obstruction of justice,” Green said on the House floor on Wednesday. “I do it because, Mr. Speaker, there is a belief in this country that no one is above the law. And that includes the president of the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, our democracy is at risk.”
