Pastor who voted for Trump says he ‘begged God’ in his prayer closet for impeachment
The Rev. O’Neal Dozier, the outspoken leader of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano, Florida, who voted enthusiastically for President Donald Trump in 2016, says he's now begging God to remove him from office through impeachment.
“God has heard my prayers, the prayers of the righteous and the true patriotic Americans who love America and who want to maintain our republic and democracy. I have asked and begged God in my prayer closet to remove Donald Trump from the office of the Presidency of the United States of America, because of his unfitness to lead this nation that God loves so dearly,” Dozier, a Republican, began in an op-ed for the South Florida Times.
“The righteous and the true patriotic Americans are pleased to see that the House of Representatives have launched a formal impeachment inquiry into president Donald Trump’s attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into digging up dirt on presidential candidate Joe Biden,” added the former NFL player and law professor.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced an impeachment inquiry last month into claims that President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a telephone call in July to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for what she described as "personal gain.”
A transcript of that call can be read here.
On Tuesday, however, it was announced that Democratic leaders won't be holding a vote in the House on the impeachment inquiry anytime soon due to divisions within the Democratic caucus.
In his op-ed, Dozier argued: “The framers of the United States Constitution recognized that abuses of presidential powers are impeachable offenses. Therefore, according to Article II. Section 4 of the United States Constitution, President Trump has committed an impeachable offense, which calls for his removal from office."
Discussions of impeachment have reportedly led to anger among some of the president’s most ardent evangelical supporters. First Baptist Church of Dallas Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress said an impeachment would cause a "Civil War-like fracture."
Dozier, however, is appealing to Christian politicians and voters alike to pull their support from the president.
“I have come to the realization that America’s democratic process is broken and that our democracy and Republic are in danger of total destruction under the leadership of President Donald Trump and that the only entity that can save our democracy and Republic is the true church of Jesus Christ. America’s democracy is broken because the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate and the Republican minority in the U.S. House of Representatives are hell bent in their support of President Donald Trump’s corruptive and dictatorial leadership,” he asserted.
“The reason the Republicans in both houses of Congress overwhelmingly support and defend president Trump openly, not privately, is because they are held hostage by president Trump’s Republican base, which is about 24 percent of eligible voters,” he continued.
In November 2016, Dozier voted for Trump, the Sun Sentinel reported. In January the following year, he delivered the invocation at a Broward Republican Party meeting. Days after Trump’s inauguration, Dozier also thanked God “for the election of President Donald J. Trump, who was elected by the forgotten men and women of America, who will make America great again.”
Dozier has been pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach for more than 32 years and has been an active Republican for decades. He worked as a Republican committeeman, was the honorary state chairman for Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign and was an appointee of former Gov. Jeb Bush to the panel that recommends judicial appointments.
According to his website, Dozier is also a veteran of the United States Army who played professional football in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears during the 1974 football season and was later traded to the New York Jets. After the trade he was waived because of injury.
In addition to his seminary training, he earned his law degree from John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia, and served as a professor of law at Broward Community College and the Criminal Justice Institute of Broward Community College for three years.
