Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, on Wednesday said he plans to bring articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump for suggesting the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip.
"The movement to impeach the president has begun. I rise to announce that I will bring Articles of Impeachment against the president for dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done," Green said from the House floor.
"I also rise to say that the impeachment movement is going to be a grass up movement, not a top down. The people have got to move forward. The people have to demand it and when the people demand it, it will be done."
Trump on Tuesday suggested during a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the war-torn territory into "the Riviera of the Middle East."
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump said. "We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs."
Green accused Trump of openly calling for ethnic cleansing.
"Ethnic cleansing in Gaza is not a joke, especially when it emanates from the president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world," Green said.
Netanyahu, he added, "should be ashamed knowing the history of his people to stand there and allow such things to be said."