1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

I am writing as your constituent about a question of constitutional obligation that I believe deserves a direct response: whether Congress will take formal steps to remove President Trump from office in response to his conduct regarding the military strikes on Iran and his public statements calling for the destruction of Iranian civilization. I understand the political calculus. I am not writing to argue with it. I am writing to argue that the political calculus is the wrong frame entirely. An American president publicly called for the eradication of an entire civilization on a Tuesday night. Not metaphorically. Senator Chris Murphy put it precisely: "No President in control of his senses would publicly promise to eradicate an entire civilization." That statement is not hyperbole. It is a factual description of conduct that falls outside the bounds of what any rational person should expect from a head of state — let alone one with unilateral command of the world's largest nuclear arsenal. And yet the primary Democratic response has been to write letters. I want to be fair to those who argue that impeachment and 25th Amendment proceedings are distractions from the more immediate work of opposing the war itself. That argument is not frivolous. I understand it. But I cannot accept it, and here is why. The Constitution Is Not a Guideline We are a nation governed by a written Constitution that specifies what happens when a president is no longer fit for office. It provides two mechanisms: removal through impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors, and replacement through the 25th Amendment when the president is unable to discharge the duties of his office. These are not suggestions. They are not aspirational. They are the law of the land, written by people who had just finished fighting a revolution against a king who claimed his power was self-justifying. The argument that we should not invoke these provisions because Republicans will block them is an argument that the Constitution should only be enforced when it is politically convenient to do so. That is precisely how constitutions die. Not through repeal, but through atrophy — through the accumulation of moments when the people responsible for enforcing them decided that the political cost was too high. I do not accept that standard, and I do not think you should either. The concern that removing Trump would leave us with Vice President Vance is real. JD Vance would be a terrible acting president. I do not dispute that. But that cannot be the reason to abandon the constitutional process. If "the replacement would also be bad" is sufficient justification for not enforcing the removal provisions of the Constitution, then those provisions are effectively dead. They will never apply, because there will always be a worse-case scenario to invoke. That is not a constitutional republic. That is a system that protects incumbency above all else. The Record Is the Point I am realistic. I do not expect Republicans to vote for impeachment. I do not expect the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. I do not expect the war powers resolution to pass. What I expect — and what I am asking you to deliver — is a documented, permanent record that these actions were named, that members of Congress stood and said clearly what they were witnessing, and that not everyone went along with it. History will be written about this period. The midterm elections will come. And when they do, every senator who voted to give this president a blank check for an unauthorized war of uncertain purpose, conducted against a country that has no nuclear weapons and that was provoked by us, will have to answer for that vote. Every representative who stayed silent while a president threatened to erase a civilization will have to face their voters. The vote matters even when it fails. The documentation matters even when it feels futile. Because there will be a future — and the people of that future will want to know who stood up and who looked away. I want them to be able to see your name on the right side of that record. What I Am Asking I am asking you to co-sponsor or publicly support: • A formal House resolution of impeachment, or a public statement calling for one, grounded in the president's conduct with respect to Iran and his demonstrated inability to exercise the powers of the office consistent with constitutional norms. • A formal request to the Cabinet to evaluate the president's fitness for office under the 25th Amendment, as more than 80 of your House colleagues have already called for. • A war powers resolution asserting Congress's constitutional authority over the decision to wage war — not because it will pass, but because the vote will be on the record. I am not asking you to do something that is certain to succeed. I am asking you to do something that is certain to matter — to the historical record, to the voters who will judge these decisions, and to the Constitution that your oath requires you to defend. Resistance matters even when it feels futile. The record matters now and for the history books. I ask you to stand and be counted.