A Democratic congresswoman kicked off her term with an expletive-laced vow to impeach US President Donald Trump, triggering Republican outrage and testing party discipline barely a day after Democrats regained the House of Representatives.
As a clip of Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib's animated comments circulated widely on social media, Mr Trump tartly dismissed the threat of impeachment in a tweet today.
"How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?" Trump tweeted.
"They only want to impeach me because they know they can't win in 2020, too much success!"
How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2019
At an event following her swearing-in yesterday, Ms Tlaib told a cheering crowd of supporters: "People love you. And you win.
"And when your son looks at you and says, 'Momma, look you won, bullies don't win.' And I said, 'Baby, they don't,' because we're gonna go in there and we're gonna impeach the mother******."
Ms Tlaib is one of the first two Muslim women voted into Congress and made Mr Trump's impeachment central to her campaign.
A long-time critic of the Republican leader, she was once arrested for heckling the then-candidate during his White House run.
The morning of her entry into Congress, Ms Tlaib labelled Mr Trump "a direct and serious threat to our country," in a co-authored op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press newspaper.
"We already have overwhelming evidence that the president has committed impeachable offences," she said.
"Each passing day brings new damage to the countless people hurt by this lawless president's actions. We cannot undo the trauma that he is causing to our people."
"The time for impeachment proceedings is now."
Democrats' new majority in the House of Representatives has marked a dramatic power shift on Capitol Hill less than two years before the Republican president's re-election bid, as Democrats intend to put a check on Mr Trump's turbulent White House.
