UPDATE: Entire Queens House delegation supports impeachment

From left to right, U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Grace Meng, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velazquez said they supported impeaching President Donald Trump earlier this year. U.S. Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Gregory Meeks and Tom Suozzi announced their support for impeachment on thursday. Photos via U.S. Congress.

By David Brand

UPDATE [SEPT. 24, 2019, 3:15 P.M.]: QUEENS’ SEVEN REPRESENTATIVES NOW SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT.

All seven Queens Congress members now say they support beginning an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

Three Queens representatives, including Gregory Meeks, the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party, announced their support for impeachment proceedings in the past 24 hours as more information emerged about Trump’s alleged call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky urging Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. Trump also blocked military aid to Ukraine days before the phone call, White House officials said.

The White House had refused to turn over to Congress information from a whistleblower in the intelligence community about the purported phone call with the Ukrainian president. That was the final straw for Meeks.

“I believe at this moment that the President's refusal to hand over the whistleblower information is a direct obstruction to the United States Congress of us conducting [oversight of] his great abuse of power," Meeks told CNN Tueday. “The only course of action is to go into an impeachment inquiry.”

U.S. Reps. Grace Meng, Carolyn Maloney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velazquez have each supported impeachment for months, with Ocasio-Cortez calling for impeachment in April.

U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi tweeted Tuesday that he supports impeachment proceedings.

“I believe that it is my Constitutional duty and the duty of the United States Congress to move forward with impeachment inquiries,” Suozzi said.

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries voted in favor of beginning an investigation that could lead to impeachment on Sept. 12. On Tuesday, he signaled his support for impeachment proceedings.

“The Constitution gives Congress the responsibility to rein in a lawless President. We will do our job #ImpeachmentInvestigation,” Jeffries tweeted Tuesday.

ORIGINAL STORY [JULY 31, 2019]:

The majority of Queens’ seven-member Congressional delegation say they now support beginning an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Three Queens Congressmembers do not.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng announced her support for impeachment proceedings on Tuesday, joining U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velazquez.

U.S. Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Gregory Meeks and Tom Suozzi do not support impeachment.

The New York Times has asked all 433 House members for their position on impeachment. As of Wednesday afternoon, 111 representatives say they support an impeachment inquiry, 99 say they do not and 223 have not responded.

Meng tweeted her support for impeachment, a week after a member of the Democratic Socialists of America announced he would challenge her in the 2020 Democratic primary.

“This is not a decision I take lightly, but one I feel it's my duty to make. Americans deserve the truth,” Meng said.

President Donald Trump photographed on July 29 in Washington. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.

Ocasio-Cortez has been a particularly vocal advocate of impeachment. “Failure to impeach now is neglect of due process,” she tweeted in May. 

Though Trump could be impeached by a Democratic-controlled House, it is unlikely the Republican-controlled Senate would vote to convict him by a two-thirds majority needed to remove a president. 

Two presidents, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, have been impeached by the House, but the Senate has never convicted a president and forced their removal from office. 

Meeks told reporters at a Manhattan event that he does not want to begin impeachment proceedings because Trump has not been convicted of a crime.

“You could impeach him tomorrow, but what does it mean?" Meeks said at an event on May 30. “You can indict a ham sandwich, but if you can't convict him, what does it mean? And so my estimation is, to impeach the president at this moment does not make any sense, because you can't convict him of anything, and he would still be here tomorrow.”

Spokespeople for Suozzi and Jeffries both told the Times that the two representatives do not support impeachment at this time.