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The anonymous vote approved the resolution, which pointed to Trump’s alleged violations of the Constitution and his “unsoundness of mind.”
Brookline Town Meeting overwhelmingly approved an article last week calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office after “increasingly frequent and serious violations of the Constitution,” the petitioners wrote.
Article 19, a resolution regarding the removal of Trump from office, passed 141-27-20 Wednesday, the second and final day of Brookline’s Special Town Meeting.
The article pointed to Trump firing the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the general of the Defense Intelligence Agency after disagreements with the president. It also criticized Trump’s tariffs and his “demeaning our closest allies in personal terms unrelated to any policy objective.”
It also addressed 79-year-old Trump’s “unsoundness of mind,” listing him twice making the error that Alaska is part of Russia and him failing to locate the Finnish president sitting in front of him during a meeting, the article said.
Jonathan Margolis, who submitted the motion, called on the other 254 members of Brookline Town Meeting to remember the dozens of men from Brookline who fought in the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.
“I’m sure that some people said to them, ‘What can your puny company do against the British Empire?’ But they went anyway. I suggest to you that this is our time to stand up,” Margolis said during the meeting. “We need to protect democracy from the greatest threat it has faced since the Civil War. Are we going to sit here silenced, or will we stand up?”
The Town Meeting members rejected a vote to table the petition, which some members thought “is not directly relevant to the affairs of the Town of Brookline, nor is there any likelihood that expressing such an opinion will influence change,” the motion to table said. The motion to table failed by 10 votes, moderator Neil Wishnisky said, with a final 146-78-7.
The body also approved to use a count vote for both the tabling vote and the final vote on the resolution, meaning the total number of votes would be recorded but how each individual member voted would not be.
Brookline has a long tradition of adopting values-based resolutions at Town Meeting, according to the Advisory Committee, which supported the resolution.
The resolution was “reframed to express the town’s view around the President’s dereliction of constitutional duty and disregard for democratic norms, including his disregard for law and governance, dismissal of career public servants, public statements that contradict fact and actions undermining international alliances and documented violations of human rights norms,” said Elise Couture-Stone of the Advisory Committee.
‘This article is beneath us’: Member condemns more political divisiveness
Lisa Shatz, a Town Meeting member, said while she doesn’t disagree with the resolution, her Jewish faith teaches to appreciate “the good someone has done.”
“He’s likely the most corrupt president in American history. Nonetheless, it needs to be acknowledged that he brought about a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all the living Israeli hostages from the hell of the Gazan tunnels,” Shatz said.
Elizabeth Childs, another member, also spoke out against the article, asking the body to focus on schools, seniors, open space, and infrastructure.
“This article is beneath us. What does it say about us as citizens in our town, when we attempt to unify our community around a politicized personal attack?” Child said. “It does not serve our town to level a formal judgment against more than 3,400 of our fellow townsfolk and the majority of Americans who voted for President Trump that we know better than they do.”
“But we do!” someone called out from the audience.
The resolution called for the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, while noting that using the amendment or impeachment “are to all intents and purposes unavailable” due to the political reality.
“I’m struck, sitting in this in this room, thinking of my grandchildren, who would all very much want us to pass this,” said Member John Bassett. “We’re a little group in one town, but if we take this vote, it may encourage other towns to take a similar vote, and if a lot of people do it, it will have some impact.”
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