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While many progressives were dismayed to learn on Thursday that Democratic leaders remain reticent to call for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, some looked with admiration at the hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans who successfully forced their governor from office with days of non-violent protests. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's resignation Wednesday night followed nearly two weeks of historic, sustained demonstrations by Puerto Ricans angry over leaked messages showing the governor and his associates denigrating his constituents, as well as a corruption scandal. Puerto Ricans have given "their fellow Americans the blueprint to remove Trump," wrote one progressive critic on...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., expressed support for the "decolonization process" of Puerto Rico following the announced resignation of its embattled governor, Ricardo Rosselló. In an Instagram livestream on Thursday night, Ocasio-Cortez took questions from her followers. The first asked how she felt about what's happening in Puerto Rico. "First of all, I am so incredibly proud of everyone in Puerto Rico right now demanding accountability from their government," Ocasio-Cortez began. "They were so relentlessly creative in their protest that they were able to get the governor to finally resign as well as some of his cabinet members."

The interview is with Shep but you should see it anyway. Devastating.

Thousands of Puerto Ricans gathered Wednesday in the commonwealth capital of San Juan to demand the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, the second mass demonstration against the embattled leader this week. Waving Puerto Rican flags -- some in black and gray to signal their discontent with the government -- and chanting demands that Rosselló step down, demonstrators of every age group said they were fed up with the corruption of elected officials as well as crippling austerity measures that have scaled back necessary services in recent years. The crowd included pop star Ricky Martin and reggaeton artists Benito Martinez Ocasio...

(SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico) — Nearly two years ago, Hurricane María exposed the raw dysfunction of Puerto Rico, collapsing long-neglected infrastructure and leaving several thousand dead on Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s watch. Last week, two of his top former officials were arrested by the FBI on corruption charges. But the scandal that is threatening to buckle the boyish 40-year-old governor centers on a profanity-laced and at times misogynistic online chat with nine other male members of his administration in which some of the U.S. territory’s most powerful men act like a bunch of teenagers. The leak of at least 889 pages...

MIAMI — A political crisis engulfed Puerto Rico over the weekend, prompting the departure of two senior members of the government and threatening Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló, who found himself increasingly isolated in office and no longer supported by leaders of his own party. Mr. Rosselló’s administration was rocked by the publication of a trove of derisive messages sent by the governor and some of his cabinet members and top aides in a private chat on the messaging app Telegram. The messages mocked political foes and allies alike, often with profanity. On Saturday, the governor tried to contain the fallout...

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló — whose administration has been roiled by a corruption probe – has apologized for calling former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito a “whore” and telling a federal board overseeing the island’s finances to “go f— yourself.” Rosselló made the comments in leaked text messages published by local newspaper Primera Hora after the FBI arrested former top officials in his government on corruption charges. In one private chat, he used the Spanish word for “whore” to describe Mark-Viverito – and in another told the Fiscal Oversight Board established by Congress to oversee the territory’s finances to...

The governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, is set to keynote an address at The Heritage Foundation on Wednesday. In the past, policy analysts and fellows at Heritage were rather reluctant about Puerto Rico becoming a state. It seemed as though statehood were contrary to conservative policies and principles, while keeping the island as an unincorporated territory furthered what Heritage stood for. However, the truth is just the opposite. There is nothing conservative about Puerto Rico’s political status —beginning with its legal origins. Conservatives believe that judges overstep their constitutional powers when they make laws rather than interpret them. In...

Puerto Rico’s new governor was sworn in Monday, promising an immediate push for statehood in a territory facing a deep economic crisis. Gov. Ricardo Rossello, 37, proposed several measures aimed at alleviating the crisis shortly after he was sworn in at midnight. Among them is a proposal to hold a referendum that would ask voters whether they prefer statehood or independence. Many have argued that Puerto Rico’s political status has contributed to its decade-long crisis that has prompted more than 200,000 people to flee to the U.S. mainland in recent years. “The United States cannot pretend to be a model...