One of a couple dozen bite-sized items Levinski is serving up at her Trump impeachment-themed house party are symbolic “Comey cake balls,” made of white Oreo cookies with cream cheese and rolled in powdered sugar.

“Those are next to the sign for obstruction of justice—since Trump fired him,” Levinski told Newsweek, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. “It’s a means to educate people on the different offenses.”

Trump’s firing of Comey because of “this Russia thing” and his request that Comey let go of an investigation on ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn make a clear case for obstructing justice, contend the president’s critics including the “Need to Impeach” campaign that organized the parties ahead of Presidents’ Day.

The campaign was launched by major Democratic donor Tom Steyer last October and has already made headlines with a series of television commercials as well as billboards in New York City’s iconic Times Square. Saturday’s parties are just the latest step in Steyer’s efforts. The campaign sent party hosts including Fairfax, Virginia, resident Levinski a list of what they said were impeachable offenses around which to plan their gatherings aimed at pushing Congress to begin proceedings to remove Trump from office.

Based on that list, Levinski, a swing voter who has supported Democratic candidates for the past few years, also baked up a few desserts to coincide with the ongoing investigation into Russian collusion.

Her “Kremlin cake balls” are red velvet cake dipped in blue candy coating and white chocolate frosting “so when you bite into it, it will look like the Russian flag,” Levinksi said. “Putin pudding cups” include vanilla pudding over a wafer with golden sprinkles on top “since he’s so close to [Vladimir] Putin,” Russia’s president, Levinski added. She’s also preparing “Moscow strawberries” soaked in vodka and rolled in sugar “since of course, everything about Moscow is vodka.”

To go along with another impeachable offense listed by the campaign, directing law enforcement to investigate and prosecute political adversaries for improper and unjustifiable purposes, Levinski concocted a “Lock her up-side-down cake” alluding to Hillary Clinton and Trump supporters’ chant to “lock her up.”

“That’s an offensive type of thing where he shouldn’t be trying to put his adversary in prison for running against him,” said Levinski, who voted for Clinton.

The list of alleged impeachable offenses, and thus the array of tasty treats, did not end there.

To make Trump’s alleged offense of abusing his presidential pardoning power in pardoning former sheriff Joe Arpaio—who was convicted for contempt of court after ignoring an order to stop detaining and searching people based on the color of their skin—Levinski baked “pardon pow(d)er cookies” dusted with powdered sugar.

The provided list of impeachable offenses also included claims that Trump advocated violence and undermined equal protection under law by giving cover to neo-Nazis who rallied in Charlottesville. To signify that action, Levinski created “Trump puppets,” chocolate police badges traced from wax paper.

Even the threat of nuclear war was not beyond marking with a sweet treat. Trump’s fiery threats toward North Korea landed him in Need to Impeach’s impeachable offense of engaging in conduct that grossly endangers the peace and security of the U.S. So Levinski made “nuclear buttons” of brownies with strawberries or raspberries pressed on top of them.

Levinski will also be providing her guests with something to help wash down all those baked delights. Whether it is appreciated, though, is another matter. She said she bought a bottle of Trump Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine “against all my better judgment” for the impeachable offense of violating the United States Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.

“It’s made by their family and they get all the profits for that,” she explained. “He hasn’t fully removed himself from all these business practices.”

Not everything created for the party was for consuming, however. For the final impeachable offense on the list, undermining the freedom of the press, Levinski bought a roll of toilet paper with Trump’s Twitter feed printed on it for the bathroom.

“That’s the fake news that people get to read,” she said.

Besides the treats around impeachable offenses, Levinski was also creating “Fire(ball) and Fury shooters” dedicated to Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, “Dark and ‘Stormy Daniels’” cocktails named after the porn star Trump allegedly had an affair with, and “grab ‘em by the cookie” cookies “since Trump was saying grab ‘em by the you know what,” Levinski said, referring to Trump’s lewd remarks about women caught on an infamous leaked “Access Hollywood” tape.

Not everyone is so happy to discuss their plans to celebrate what they hope will be the president’s impending removal from office. Levinski said that some of her invited guests who are government employees were hesitant to RSVP.

“It’s sad that in a time like today, we’re so politically charged that you can’t go to a party with Comey cake balls because you’re worried what your boss might think because they might see you on Facebook,” Levinksi said.

Indeed, Need to Impeach is encouraging parties across the nation to share their festivities on social media, if they feel comfortable.

“If we say we have a logical reason why you should impeach the president, that is not a powerful statement,” Need to Impeach founder Steyer told Newsweek. “It’s only when the people’s voices get together that it really matters.”

The campaign has collected more than 4.7 million signatures on a petition demanding Congress take action to remove Trump from power. The parties have turned “the average day person into an advocate and given them the opportunity to talk to friends and family members,” Need to Impeach spokesman Erik Olvera told Newsweek.

Food is an “effective way to connect people no matter their political party or beliefs,” Levinski’s cousin Becki Melvie, who owns a boutique cooking school and kitchen store and helped brainstorm the recipes, said.

Levinski agreed and anticipates her party will be filled with healthy an educational discussion.

“I don’t think anybody will be offended because there’s so much humor to the desserts,” she said. “I think everybody is going to feel like they ate too much sugar.”

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeachment-parties-try-entice-congress-remove-president-810054

“There will be increasing evidence and increasing urgency with the American people to get this guy out of office as people realize we really can’t survive him,” Steyer said during a recent sit-down with Newsweek in New York City.

“When it happens, I don’t know. Exactly what the next events will be, I don’t know. That there will be next events, I do know,” said Steyer, adding that they will support his campaign’s objective.

Before launching Need to Impeach in October to demand impeachment proceedings, Steyer said he was betting that every day would bring more evidence to back up his case that the president deserves to be booted from the White House.

“And we think that’s happening,” the Democratic billionaire said, citing a recent New York Times op-ed column on 10 ways Trump has obstructed justice.

“We’re going to see more information coming out of the investigations. We’re going to see more attempts to obstruct justice,” Steyer predicted. “We’re seeing them almost on a daily basis at this point.”

According to Steyer, there is no need to wait for the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s intensifying investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russians in the election because he “obstructed justice and that has always been the primary basis for impeachment of the president of the United States.”

Among instances that Trump critics say show he committed obstruction of justice are his comment to former FBI Director James Comey last February to let go of an investigation on resigned national security adviser Michael Flynn, and that Trump later fired Comey because of “this Russia thing.”

Steyer added that he cannot foresee what steps may lead to Trump’s impeachment because the president constantly commits new, unpredictable offenses.

“I liken it to being on a wild horse,” Steyer said. “We as a country are on a wild horse and we don’t know where it’s going.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Newsweek.

For Need to Impeach, the biggest roadblock has been partisanship, Steyer said, with Republicans “hunkered down trying to defend the indefensible.”

Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas has forced two votes to start proceedings on impeaching Trump. The most recent one in January—after Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries”—drew eight more Democrats in favor, but failed 355 to 66.

“He has lowered the standards for Americans. I mean, just as a glaring example, no other American president used a four-letter word, bathroom language, in meetings,” Steyer said of Trump.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Minority Whip Steny Hoyer have opposed pursuing impeachment while Mueller carries out his probe. But Steyer said that more politicians have shown willingness to support a movement against Trump when it doesn’t explicitly involve impeachment.

Steyer said he is relying not on the number of people in Congress whose votes are needed to initiate impeachment proceedings, but on the voice of the American people.

Need to Impeach has collected more than 4.7 million signatures on a petition demanding Congress to begin proceedings to remove Trump. Its largest event to date, Party to Impeach, will take place on Saturday, ahead of President’s Day, with impeachment-themed house parties planned in more than 500 communities across the U.S.

“Obviously, the elected officials don’t want to hear me at all. The only thing they can hear and have to hear is the voice of 4.5 million Americans” and counting, Steyer said. “That is a shockingly powerful statement.”

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeachment-just-matter-time-after-more-4-million-sign-petition-tom-807814