WASHINGTON – Two of the Arizona Democrats running to replace the late Raúl Grijalva in Congress in July – his daughter Adelita Grijalva and Daniel Hernandez – said Thursday they support an impeachment inquiry over the air strikes President Donald Trump ordered on Iran.
One Arizona incumbent, first-term Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Phoenix, also supports such an inquiry.
“It’s clear that Trump’s actions violated the Constitution, which merits impeachment inquiries,” said Grijalva, who resigned from the Pima County board of supervisors in April, two weeks after her father died, to run for the seat he won in 2002.
Hernandez, a former Arizona House member, said Trump’s actions risked drawing the U.S. into another of the “endless wars” in the Middle East.
“It is a problem we have had for a very long time, where presidents have basically had an uncontrolled and unchecked ability to wage war, without doing what is constitutionally required of consulting Congress,” he said. “That’s why the War Powers Act was passed.”
Tucson voters will choose a successor for Raúl Grijalva in a July 15 special election. The district is overwhelmingly Democratic. Three other Democratic candidates rejected the idea of trying to impeach Trump or did not respond.
On Tuesday, Ansari was one of 79 House Democrats who supported an effort to launch what would become the third impeachment of Trump. The first two fell short in the Senate.
“This was yet another example of an illegal action by this president that I believe should at least be considered for impeachment,” Ansari said by phone Thursday.
On June 22, long range B-2 bombers dropped massive bombs on three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Trump has since taken credit for a ceasefire in a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, and for destroying or at least setting back Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
The impeachment resolution was filed by Rep. Al Green, a Texas Democrat whose first effort to impeach Trump began a few months into his first term. The text accused the president of “devolving American democracy into authoritarianism by unconstitutionally usurping Congress’s power to declare war.”
The House tabled the measure on a 344-79 vote.
Rep. Greg Stanton of Phoenix was among the Democrats voting with Republicans.
Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House, then a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict and remove the president. Republicans control both chambers by a handful of seats and
Ansari acknowledged that such an effort would certainly fail.
But she said, “for my district and my constituents, Donald Trump’s actions throughout his tenure have been devastating and unconstitutional.”
Democrats, including many who oppose impeachment, have asserted that Trump violated the War Powers Act, a 1973 law that requires a president to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action.
There’s no consensus among legal scholars on that.
Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is among those who say Trump did have the authority to order the strikes.
“Every single president since the War Powers Resolution was passed has said that there are military deployments that do not rise to the level of war, and therefore do not fall within the purview of the War Powers Resolution,” she said.
The Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, which provides advice to presidents and the executive branch, has repeatedly said that presidents have the authority to engage in “isolated military engagements” and “one-off strikes,” Finkelstein said, and that the law doesn’t apply unless a troop deployment is “pervasive and persistent.”
Another Democratic candidate in the Tucson congressional race, activist Deja Foxx, sidestepped the issue of impeachment when asked for her views.
Her response: “We should not be dragged into another endless war by a reality TV president. We need peace and aid for Gaza, and help for families here at home who are struggling with the cost of housing, food and health care.”
A fourth candidate, Patrick Harris Sr., said calls for impeachment are premature and that such a “knee-jerk” reaction by Democrats would lead to embarrassment, depending on what intelligence emerges about Iran’s nuclear program.
“The polls are very clear that the public is not happy with current Democratic leadership,” he said by phone. “We need data. Claiming something is legal or illegal without enough information causes more chaos and right now, America needs calm leadership.”
The fifth Democratic candidate, Jose Malvido Jr., did not respond to requests for comment.
Early voting began June 18. The general election will be on Sep. 23.
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