Tom Steyer, a billionaire investor and Democratic donor, has launched a TV ad campaign to impeach President Trump.
In the first TV spot, which debuted Thursday, Steyer charges Trump with taking the U.S. “to the brink of nuclear war” and obstructing justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey. “A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less, and today people in Congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger,” Steyer says in the video, which directs viewers to NeedToImpeach.com.
Steyer said he would launch an “eight-figure” TV campaign supplemented with a “seven-figure” spend on social media.
On the NeedToImpeach website, Steyer posts an open letter making his case for Trump’s removal. “He is repealing clean air protections and unleashing polluters, even as increasingly catastrophic natural disasters supercharged by our warming planet ravaged the country throughout the summer,” Steyer writes. “He has threatened to reduce aid for millions of American citizens in Puerto Rico who are struggling to survive without drinkable water or electricity — a move that would be a total dereliction of his duty. And every day, Americans are left bracing for a Twitter screed that could set off a nuclear war.”
The White House has not commented.
Steyer, 60, lives in San Francisco and donated $91 million to Democratic causes in 2016. He founded the hedge fund Farallon Capital before retiring in 2012, when he launched NextGen America, which supports progressive positions on climate change, immigration and health care. He has said that Democratic candidates who want his money in 2018 must sign on to his impeachment effort.
It’s the week’s second (at least) launch of a multimillion-dollar impeachment campaign. Last Sunday, the Hustler publisher Larry Flynt placed a full-page ad in The Washington Post offering $10 million for information leading to Trump’s “impeachment and removal from office.”
