Democrat Launches Trump Impeachment Bid

And so it begins? Rep. Brad Sherman formally launched a bid to impeach President Trump on Wednesday—but the move has next to no support among his fellow Democrats, let alone the House Republicans whose votes would be needed for impeachment. The measure's only co-sponsor was Rep. Al Green from Texas. Sherman, who represents a district in suburban Los Angeles, introduced the articles of impeachment on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times reports. He said he hopes the move will inspire an "intervention" in the White House that will see "incompetency replaced by care." The latest:

• Sherman says the firing of FBI director James Comey was obstruction of justice, which amounts to the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that warrant impeachment, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. "We now begin the effort to force the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on obstruction of justice and Russian interference in our election," he said in a statement.

• Democratic leaders are wary of supporting the longshot bid, preferring to focus on fighting the ObamaCare repeal and calling for an independent commission to investigate Trump's Russia links, the Hill reports. Nancy Pelosi "has repeatedly called for an outside, independent commission to get to the bottom of Trump’s connection to Russia’s interference in our election," a spokeswoman for the House minority leader said.
• The White House reacted with what Breitbart calls "disdain." "I think that is utterly and completely ridiculous and a political game at its worst," spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
• The move shows that "talk of impeachment isn’t going away," even though most Democrats see it as a distraction from their policy agenda, writes Claire Foran at the Atlantic.
• Most analysts believe Sherman's effort has little chance of success, though he describes it as "the first step on a very long road" and predicts that Republicans will support the move "many, many months from now."

(More Trump impeachment stories.)