水门事件时期众议院司法委员会的一名前民主党女议员说，共和党人需要更多时间来推翻唐纳德·特朗普总统并支持弹劾他。
伊丽莎白·霍尔茨曼代表纽约连续四届在众议院任职，并在司法委员会通过弹劾前总统理查德·尼克松水门事件的条款时担任该委员会的成员。
霍尔茨曼告诉新闻周刊她认为弹劾特朗普和尼克松的案件“非常相似”，但警告说，就像水门事件一样，还需要一段时间在共和党人接受这些论点之前反对现任总统。
霍尔茨曼告诉记者:“现在期待共和党人站出来说他们将被弹劾还为时过早。”新闻周刊注意到那是“我们开始工作后的许多个月...在任何共和党人说他们赞成弹劾条款之前。”
“人们必须了解事实，消化事实，理解事实的含义。这里真正的问题是特朗普总统的所作所为对我们的民主有何影响？”霍尔茨曼说。
“人们必须努力解决这个问题，理解它，拥抱它所带来的危险。这里需要一点时间。
“每个人都想预测参议院将会发生什么，但当我们开始众议院司法委员会的程序时，我们甚至不知道情况如何，也不知道弹劾委员会会有足够的票数。它从未进入参议院。
“在这里我们不能本末倒置。让我们有条不紊地前进吧。这真的是必须发生的事情，看看美国人民的反应。那我们就看看参议员们会怎么做。”
特朗普正在接受众议院民主党人就他对乌克兰的行为发起的弹劾调查的审查。他被指控滥用职权，迫使乌克兰政府干涉2020年选举。特朗普否认有任何不当行为。
总统希望乌克兰公开宣布两项腐败调查，一项针对民主党，另一项针对前副总统乔拜登，他是2020年提名的主要候选人，也是特朗普的明显对手。
目前，弹劾调查正在从主要政府官员那里收集特朗普、他的亲密助手和乌克兰之间发生的事情的证据。总统和他之前的尼克松一样，拒绝配合弹劾调查。
众议院情报委员会的一些证词到目前为止，这是闭门和公开听证会的结合，似乎证实了特朗普拒绝向乌克兰提供军事援助，以此作为确保他想要的政治有利调查的杠杆的指控。
霍尔茨曼说，新的证据不断涌现，但对特朗普的指控已经很有力，其根本原则与水门事件相似。
“在水门事件中，尼克松为了在1972年再次当选，在掩盖事实的过程中利用他总统的权力来掩盖水门事件窃贼和他的竞选活动之间的联系。所以他准备不惜一切代价利用总统的权力赢得选举，”她说。
“快进到2019年，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普准备并已经利用其办公室的权力不惜一切代价赢得美国大选。这是不允许的。这在1974年是可弹劾的罪行，今天也是可弹劾的罪行。”
霍尔茨曼继续说:“这要窄得多，但它涉及到一些对我们的民主同样危险的因素。干涉我们的自由选举是对我们民主的一个非常危险的威胁——尼克松总统就是这样做的，特朗普总统也是这样做的。
“重要的是看到这里和那里的一些深层相似之处，这对我来说确实令人惊讶...你有点惊讶地摇摇头，这个教训还没有学到，特朗普总统似乎像尼克松一样认为，因为他是总统，所以他凌驾于法律之上。他不是。”
这位前国会女议员后来在20世纪90年代初成为纽约市审计长，之后又回到了她在一家私人律师事务所的从政前职业生涯。她说，民主党人必须向公众传达特朗普不当行为的严重性。
“可弹劾的罪行以及严重的犯罪和轻罪不仅损害国家福祉，而且损害法治和民主。这就是我认为需要强调的一点，”霍尔茨曼告诉记者新闻周刊。
“我认为问题将是美国人民对这个陈述的反应，这个非常严肃、非常严肃、非常彻底、非常有说服力的事实陈述。
“从某种意义上说，弹劾程序最终是政治性的，即与美国人民有一种互让。我认为，如果美国人民理解唐纳德·特朗普所做的事情的严重性及其对我们的民主、我们的自由选举带来的危险，那么参议院最终会明白的。
“如果他们不明白，那么他们将付出代价，也许我们所有人将来都会付出代价，因为如果我们不追究总统的责任，那么我们什么时候才能追究他的责任？”
前美国众议员伊丽莎白·霍尔茨曼(D-NY)于2019年6月15日在纽约市呼吁弹劾美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的抗议活动中发言。霍尔茨曼警告说，共和党人可能需要几个月的时间来推翻特朗普。
WATERGATE CONGRESSWOMAN SAYS IT'S 'TOO SOON' FOR REPUBLICANS TO ABANDON TRUMP OVER IMPEACHMENT, DESERTING NIXON TOOK 'MANY MONTHS'
Republicans need more time before they flip on President Donald Trump and support his impeachment, says a former Democratic congresswoman who sat on the Watergate-era House judiciary committee.
Elizabeth Holtzman represented New York in the House for four consecutive terms and was a member of the judiciary committee when it adopted articles of impeachment against former President Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal.
Holtzman told Newsweek that she sees "deep similarities" between the cases for impeaching Trump and Nixon but cautioned that, as with Watergate, it will be some time before Republicans accept the arguments against the incumbent president.
"It's too soon to expect Republicans to come out and say they're for impeachment," Holtzman told Newsweek, noting that it was "many months after we got started ... before any Republicans said they were in favor of articles of impeachment."
"People have to get a sense of the facts, digest the facts, understand the implications of the facts. The real question here is what is the impact of what President Trump did on our democracy?" Holtzman said.
"And people have to grapple with that, understand it, get their arms around that concept, the danger that it presents. There needs to be a little bit of time here.
"Everybody wants to predict what's going to happen in the Senate but when we started out proceedings in the House Judiciary Committee we didn't even know what the case was or that there'd be enough votes on the committee for impeachment. And it never got to the Senate.
"We can't really put the cart before the horse here. Let's just go and proceed in a methodical way. That's really what has to happen and see how the American people react. Then we'll see what the senators do."
Trump is under the scrutiny of an impeachment inquiry led by House Democrats over his conduct towards Ukraine. He is accused of abusing the power of his office to pressure the Ukrainian government into interfering in the 2020 election. Trump denies any wrongdoing.
The president wanted Ukraine to open and publicly announce two corruption investigations, one into the Democratic Party and one into former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 nomination and a clear rival to Trump.
Presently, the impeachment inquiry is gathering evidence from key administration officials about what took place between Trump, his close aides and Ukraine. The president, like Nixon before him, is refusing to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.
Some of the testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, which has so far been a mixture of closed-door and open-door hearings, appears to corroborate the allegation that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine as leverage to secure the politically-advantageous investigations he wanted.
Holtzman said that new evidence is constantly coming out but the case against Trump is already strong and the underlying principle at stake is similar to that of the Watergate scandal.
"In Watergate, Nixon in the cover-up used the power of his presidency to hide the fact of the connection between the Watergate burglars and his campaign in order to be re-elected in 1972. So he was prepared to use the power of his presidency to win his election at all costs," she said.
"Fast-forward to 2019, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is prepared to and has used the power of his office to win an election in the United States at all costs. This is impermissible. It was an impeachable offense in 1974 and it's an impeachable offense today."
Holtzman continued: "This is much narrower, but it involves some of the same elements that are equally dangerous to our democracy. Interfering with our free elections is a very dangerous threat to our democracy—that's what President Nixon did and that's what President Trump is doing.
"The important thing is to see some of the deep similarities here and that to me is really surprising... You kind of shake your head in wonderment that that lesson hasn't been learned and President Trump seems to think, as Nixon did, that because he is president he is above the law. Well, he's not."
The former congresswoman, who subsequently became comptroller of New York City in the early 1990s before returning to her pre-politics career at a private law firm, said Democrats must communicate to the public the gravity of Trump's misconduct.
"What's involved in an impeachable offense and high crime and misdemeanor is not just harm to the country's wellbeing, but harm to the rule of law and harm to our democracy. And that's the point that I think needs to be made," Holtzman told Newsweek.
"I think the question is going to be how the American people respond to this presentation, this very serious, very grave, very thorough, very sold presentation of the facts.
"Ultimately, an impeachment process is political in the sense that there's a kind of give-and-take with the American people. I think if the American people understand the gravity of what Donald Trump did and the danger it presents to our democracy, to our free elections, then ultimately the Senate will get it.
"If they don't get it, then they'll pay a price and maybe all of us in the future will pay a price because if we don't hold a president accountable for this then when will we ever hold him accountable?"
Former U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) speaks at a protest calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump on June 15, 2019 in New York City. Holtzman warned it could take many months for Republicans to flip on Trump.
