March On, a new organization founded by leaders of the massive women's protests the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration, is taking to the airwaves with a holiday-themed push for his impeachment.
While the group's message — including offering for sale red Christmas sweaters embroidered with the word "Impeach" — strikes a different tone from liberal activist Tom Steyer’s deadly serious $10 million ad campaign on removing Trump, the effort is another sign that the Democratic Party's progressive base is getting ahead of its leaders on impeachment.
"This holiday season, a new wish tops letters to Santa across the land: Impeachment," says the narrator of the March On ad, which began airing Wednesday on shows popular with liberals. "This year, instead of fruitcakes and poinsettias, let's flip Congress for the gift of impeachment."
In addition to the "impeach" Christmas sweaters, donors can sign holiday cards wishing Trump a "merciful end to your presidency" that will be delivered to Trump Tower in New York City by an anti-Trump "resistance-themed" choir.
Vanessa Wruble, the executive director of March On and a leader of the Women's March on Washington in January, told NBC News it's a tongue-in cheek approach to dumping the president that's meant to get liberals fired up about voting in next year's midterm elections, which often see a drop in Democratic turnout.
"It’s a fun Christmas gag. It's really about fundraising, we're trying to make money," Wruble said, while also pointing to all the progressive issues she noted are jeopardized by the GOP-controlled Congress.
Wruble said her group's roots in the Women's March are especially relevant at a moment when sexual harassment allegations are roiling Capitol Hill and many American workplaces.
"Because we are the organizers of the Women’s Marches across the country, we are singularly placed to speak to the women’s vote and issue, including the #MeToo movement," she said.
Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have tried to tamp down impeachment fever, worried it's premature as long as Republicans control Congress and politically damaging to lawmakers from swing districts. But at the same time, a growing number of Democratic and progressive groups have recognized that the issue resonates with their grass roots and small-dollar donors.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, reiterated on the House floor Wednesday that he will force a vote on impeachment before Christmas, reacting to Trump's retweets of a British anti-Muslim group.
There were hundreds of Women Marches across the country after the inauguration in what some researchers have labeled the largest single-day political demonstration in U.S. history. March On, and its affiliated super PAC, Fight Back PAC, were formed to try to continue that mission.
"Imagine the Women's Marches, only we're all headed to the polls," Wruble said.
CORRECTION (November 29, 2017, 5:31 p.m., ET): An earlier version of this article misidentified the source of several quotations about the women's march. The remarks were said by Vanessa Wruble, the executive director of March On, not Andi Pringle, the executive director of March On's political action committee. (Pringle was also misidentified as the executive director of March On.)
