10 REPUBLICANS TURN AGAINST TRUMP
Impeachment vote exposes divisions in party after riot
WASHINGTON
Rep. Tom Rice, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump from deeply conservative South Carolina, issued a plea as rioters raged through the U.S. Capitol last week.
“Where is the president?” Rice asked. “He must ask people to disperse and restore calm now.”
On Wednesday, exactly one week later, Rice voted with Democrats to impeach Trump, saying, “I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But this utter failure is inexcusable.”
Ten Republicans voted with the Democrats to impeach Trump on charges of “incitement of insurrection.” Although the group represents a small fraction of the 211-member conference, their support gives impeachment bipartisan bona fides that could help it gain traction in the Senate. It also reflects the division within the Republican Party about its future and the role the president should play.
The group represents the party’s ideological spectrum, from Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who holds a leadership position, to moderate Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan.
The others who voted to impeach Trump are Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Dan Newhouse of Washington and David Valadao of Hanford.
In statements, many called their decision a vote of conscience.
“Based on the facts before me, I have to go with my gut and vote my conscience,” tweeted Valadao, a returning member who just won his seat back from a Democrat. Trump’s “inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense. It’s time to put country over politics.”
“This is not a vote I took lightly, but a vote I took confidently,” tweeted Kinzinger, who has condemned Trump’s behavior since the election. “I’m at peace.”
Some of Trump’s top allies in the House tried to paint Kinzinger and others as outliers. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, among Trump’s staunchest congressional defenders, said the fact that only 10 Republicans joined the Democrats showed the president’s support remained strong.
Asked whether Trump could remain an effective leader of the party, Jordan said, “Of course, he is.”
“His support is strong because the American people appreciated that over the past four years he did more of what he said he would do than any president in my lifetime,” Jordan said.
But other House Republicans said the lopsided GOP vote reflected concerns about the impeachment process and should not be seen as an endorsement of Trump’s behavior.
“It actually represents a feeling among Republicans — even Republicans who are disappointed with this president — that with only seven days left to go in his term and with the toxic political environment being what it is, that there’s a real need in the country to lower the temperature,” said Rep. Garland “Andy” Barr, R-Ky. “This is viewed by a lot of Americans as an act of political vengeance.”
The most immediate fallout from the impeachment effort appears likely to occur inside the House Republican caucus, as several Trump loyalists called for Cheney to immediately resign her leadership position. A petition for her resignation circulated among GOP offices in the Capitol as hard-right members seethed over her role in backing Trump’s ouster.
Cheney on Wednesday insisted she would not resign: “I’m not going anywhere,” she told reporters. “Our nation is facing an unprecedented, since the Civil War, constitutional crisis. That’s what we need to be focused on.”
In a sign of the House GOP’s tenuous political standing, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, convened a call about two hours after the vote with his top financial donors. A slew of Fortune 500 companies in recent days have sworn off donations to the large number of House Republicans who voted last week to overturn the Electoral College results.
McCarthy told the donors that he called President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday and “pledged to work together” with the new administration, according to a participant in the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private call.
McCarthy also tried to reassure the contributors that he rejected the conspiracy theory that antifa was responsible for last week’s violence and said Trump deserved “some of the responsibility” for the attacks.
As the impeachment process now moves to the Senate for a trial, several Republicans have signaled a willingness to convict Trump, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who told colleagues earlier in the day that he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate,” according to his office.
Several Senate Republicans expressed similar sentiments, a different tone from the cries of a “witch hunt” during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.
“I stand by my statements over the last week regarding President Trump and the role he played in the deadly riot at the Capitol,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who has called for Trump to resign over the attacks. “Whether or not the Senate has the constitutional authority to hold an impeachment trial for a president that is no longer in office is debatable. Should the Senate conduct a trial, I will again fulfill my responsibility to consider arguments from both the House managers and President Trump’s lawyers.”
Other Senate Republicans focused on how everything started, with Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the election and his baseless insistence that they had been rigged.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who has been critical of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election, said everything that has happened since Nov. 3 is the result of a “particular lie.”
“When the President urged his supporters to disrupt the proceedings of the January 6th Joint Meeting of Congress by ‘fighting like hell,’ it was widely understood that his crowd included many people who were planning to fight physically,” Sasse said in a statement, “and who were prepared to die in response to his false claims of a ‘stolen election.’”
Some Republicans predicted that their internal bloodletting over Trump would soon be swept aside once Democrats take unified control in Washington.
“We’re going to get through this, and we’re going to be united, because Speaker Pelosi is going to bring some very dangerous policy to the House floor that’s frankly going to divide them and unite us,” said Rep. Richard Hudson, RN.C.