CREDO activists confront Nancy Pelosi: #WeCantWait to impeach Trump

8/21/2019 – San Francisco, Calif., USA: Thais Marques, with Credo, yells and holds a banner reading, “We Can’t Wait,” as Nancy Pelosi received a lifetime achievement award from the San Francisco Democratic Party at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. There were a large number of groups picketing outside and several protesters managed to get into the event to urge her to launch impeachment proceedings. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez / San Francisco Chronicle / Polaris)

Last week, I confronted Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco to demand that she use her power to impeach Donald Trump now.

Speaker Pelosi was receiving a lifetime achievement award at the San Francisco Democratic Party’s “Heart of the Resistance” dinner. While more than 100 activists from CREDO, By the People, CAIR, Courage Campaign, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Need to Impeach and other groups rallied outside of the event, I confronted Speaker Pelosi inside of it.

I told her: “Speaker Pelosi, I am undocumented. My community is being targeted by ICE and killed by white supremacists. Fight for my community, and impeach Trump now. We can’t wait.”

 

I confronted Speaker Pelosi to let her know that my people, who are being killed by Trump’s white supremacy, cannot wait any longer for her moral leadership on impeachment. I expected her and the other attendees to at least hear me out, but I literally screamed into a void of privilege, complacency and denial. Pelosi’s refusal to hear me speaks volumes about the limits of today’s Democratic Party, which congratulates itself on hating Trump but is unwilling to act to rein him in.

Our communities cannot afford to wait any longer. We need Speaker Pelosi to lead by publicly supporting impeachment and setting a date for a vote in the House of Representatives. And we’re not letting up until she meets our demands.

Outside the award ceremony, my colleague CREDO Action Campaign Director Nicole Regalado made an impassioned case that Speaker Pelosi will not leave a legacy of resistance, but a legacy of failure if she does not act now to impeach Trump.

Thanks to CREDO members who support our work, our protest received widespread media coverage, including NBC, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, Democracy Now!, Common Dreams and The Young Turks.

At CREDO, we know that fighting for progressive values and the world we all deserve means having the courage to hold Democrats accountable when they fall short. Thank you for sticking with us and having our backs. You can watch the entire livestream of the protest here.