The Children’s Defense Fund Applauds Action to Impeach the President
Washington, D.C. — The Children’s Defense Fund applauds the House of Representatives for voting on Wednesday to impeach the president for a second time, and urges the Senate to vote to convict the president and ensure he can never again hold the power of the presidency.
Our nation’s children are directly impacted by the decision to hold the president and other leaders accountable for their role in fanning the flames of deadly, white supremacist violence at the U.S. Capitol last week. We know that our children are watching as these unprecedented events unfold in our country. Parents, guardians, and educators strive to teach children the difference between right and wrong and that their actions have consequences. How can we expect our young minds to understand these lessons if we are unwilling and unable to hold our most powerful leaders accountable for the highest crimes against our democracy?
America’s children lost a sacred birthright last week. It became clear that they will no longer inherit a nation where a peaceful transition of power is guaranteed. Instead, the actions of the president and his supporters—those serving in Congress and those invading the Capitol—prove that our children will need to contest for this once-accepted reality. They currently stand to inherit a nation distorted by a hierarchy of human value; a nation where individuals are held to different standards based on the color of their skin; and a nation where a Black 15-year-old girl is jailed for failing to complete her homework while armed white supremacists seeking to overthrow our democracy walk freely from the U.S. Capitol after an attempted coup.
In this moment, calls for unity and reconciliation are premature. Truth telling, accountability and justice must come before reconciliation to allow us to unite and move forward. The people responsible for engaging in this attack on American democracy must face the consequences of their actions, and that begins with the president. Having taken the first steps, our leaders must follow through on pursuing every available avenue to ensure President Trump is convicted and prohibited from holding federal office again. Our children deserve no less.
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