Billionaire left-wing megadonor Tom Steyer holds Trump impeachment 'training day'

Billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer continued his push to have President Trump impeached on Monday night, holding a "training day" for fellow activists and a town hall in Washington, D.C., aimed at reassuring skeptics on both sides of the political spectrum while also pressuring lawmakers to act immediately.

Steyer, who announced earlier this month that he did not intend to run for president in 2020, also seemingly suggested that he might change his mind on whether he will challenge Trump, who has called him a "wacky" and "crazed & stumbling lunatic."

"I said that I was going to go 100 percent for impeachment, and if we can do this, we can make a gigantic change," Steyer said Monday. "I believe this is the most important thing necessary for us to do right now. I don't want to think past this. This is a huge challenge."

Steyer has stood apart from most other top Democrats on the issue. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York -- all of whom have entered the White House race or formed exploratory committees -- have stopped short of calling for Trump's impeachment. Even New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, an anti-Trump firebrand, said this weekend that impeaching the president "is certainly not appropriate right now."

Nevertheless, Steyer’s petition to impeach Trump has gained traction over the past year, and now has more than 7 million signatures. His "Need to Impeach" group, founded in Oct. 2017, reported a spike in enrollees during the since-ended partial federal government shutdown that began Dec. 22, jumping from an average of 20,000 signups a day to nearly 40,000.

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Approximately 20 percent of enrollees are registered Republicans, according to the group’s spokesperson, Erik Olvera. Steyer, speaking earlier this month in Iowa, committed to spending $40 million on the impeachment effort in 2019.

A Fox News poll last week showed that voters oppose impeaching Trump by an 8-point margin, with 41 percent backing impeachment and 49 percent opposing it.

Steyer said he hopes to bring that enthusiasm to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, when he and his supporters plan to meet with lawmakers personally on the heels of a "Need to Impeach" summit.

“We do have a plan,” Steyer said at the town hall event Monday night, referring to his effort to pressure House Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to act.

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"Our goal in this, in every single one of these things, is to have the people making those decisions to understand how much support there is for impeachment and how much demand there is for impeachment,” he said.

The group held a day of training for volunteers who attended the summit in Washington. The training included sessions on the argument of impeachment and how to approach the issue with lawmakers. The goal, according to Steyer, is to show House members that their constituents support the cause of impeachment, which he said many are still afraid to broach.

"We know we have to get the people making decisions to listen to us."

— Left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer

"We know we have to get the people making decisions to listen to us,” he said.

Only a handful of House Democrats have advocated publicly for impeaching the president. Earlier this month, freshman Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib told a crowd of supporters, "We're gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherf---er.” She later stood by her remarks even as top Democrats pushed back on them, tweeting she will "always speak truth to power."

Steyer emphasized that the point of the movement was not to implement a progressive, Democratic agenda, but a bipartisan one focused on what he called "American values." He also pointed out that if Trump is impeached by a majority of the House of Representatives and removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, he would be replaced with Vice President Mike Pence.

“We’re not replacing this president with a Democrat. We’re replacing him with a conservative Republican from Indiana,” Steyer asserted.

Those who attended the summit came from over 30 states just for the two-day event. Many had signed the petition ahead of the midterms and said they were contacted numerous times throughout the 2018 midterm elections.

Steyer wielded his massive petition list into a get-out-the-vote effort ahead of the November elections last year. He spent over $120 million in the 2018 cycle between Need to Impeach and his NextGen America group. Steyer founded NextGen America, a political action committee and nonprofit working to combat climate change, in 2013.

The Need to Impeach effort specifically targeted over 600,000 “infrequent” voters in 43 key congressional districts to remind them to vote.

Steyer has been considered by many analysts to be a potential contender for the White House, and had taken apparent steps in that direction. In recent months he ran television advertisements in which he appeared personally to call for Trump's removal, appeared at numerous political events, and even named a potential campaign manager.

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In early December, Steyer laid the groundwork for a political platform, speaking alongside a panel in Charleston, S.C., at one of five scheduled town halls. Each event focused on the “Five Rights” of his potential campaign platform, which he called the “social contract for the 21st century.”

While some analysts feared his wealth and lack of political experience would alienate progressives, Steyer had an extensive array of advisers and strategists at the ready, owing in part to his longstanding involvement in national politics.

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This weekend, Steyer had similarly tough rhetoric -- and something of a warning -- for Democrats who stand in his way.

“Unless you support impeachment, we’re not supporting you,” Steyer said Sunday.