Where Arizona’s congressional delegation stands.
State’s representatives, senators offer opinions
As the House impeachment inquiry moved to public hearings about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, Arizona’s congressional delegation has largely made clear where they stand on issue.
Here’s what the state’s nine House members and two senators have said:
House Democrats
Rep. Tom O’Halleran: The former Chicago police detective and political moderate has struck a measured tone that isn’t surprising for a Democrat holding a district Trump carried in 2016.
He was the only Arizona House Democrat who didn’t already support an impeachment inquiry after the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“It is critical that we review any evidence related to alleged abuse of power and allow all parties involved to do the same,” O’Halleran said after voting to approve the inquiry’s process and rules. “I have always been an advocate for expanding transparency in all levels of our government.”
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick: In her fourth term, but first in the more-progressive Tucson-based district she now represents, the former prosecutor has made it clear she wants to hold the president accountable.
“Impeachment is the top issue that I hear . ... There’s a lot of public support for it,” she said in a recent interview with the Tucson-based Arizona Daily Star. “I was slow coming to the impeachment table. We’ve only done that four times in history. It’s a big move to remove an elected president. But I started reading the Mueller report, and I got about 80 pages into it, and I said if I had gotten a report like this as a prosecutor, we would have already issued 15 different charges.”
Rep. Greg Stanton: He’s a freshman in Congress and a member of the House Judiciary Committee that could be tasked with drafting articles of impeachment. Unlike O’Halleran’s hedging, Stanton has already spoken of
Trump’s behavior unfavorably.
“The House has collected extensive evidence about the president’s misconduct, and now the American people will be able to hear directly from witnesses in an open setting,” he said after the inquiry process vote.
Rep. Ruben Gallego: A vocal critic of Trump, Gallego hasn’t been shy about hitting the president over his Ukraine dealings.
“We have to fight Trump on all fronts,” he said in an interview with CNN. “Let’s be clear: The president impeached himself. He released the memo that basically points to the extortion of the Ukrainian government, so I don’t think we have to overthink this. I think we’ll continue pushing forward with actually exposing more of these allegations, more of these issues. But this is already a done deal.”
Rep. Raúl Grijalva: The dean of Arizona’s delegation skipped Trump’s inauguration and supported an impeachment inquiry two years ago. He views the administration as dangerous, corrupt and backs dramatic action.
“The witness testimony couldn’t be clearer: Trump sacrificed our national security interests and abused the office of the Presidency to investigate a political rival,” Grijalva said in a tweet after transcripts of the Democratic witnesses already interviewed were released. “Congress has no choice but to stand up to this abuse and” defend our democracy.
House Republicans
Rep. David Schweikert: He holds a House seat Democrats think they can compete in next year and is fending off an ethics investigation as well. He has said little about Trump’s behavior generally and of the Ukraine allegations specifically.
Even so, he joined other House Republicans condemning the process Democrats used to reach the inquiry.
“This resolution is not a serious vote for authorizing a fair and open impeachment inquiry and does not make any changes to the partisan and secretive process House Democrats created 37 days ago, but have been pushing for months,” he said. “We should not support the current investigative process, which leaves my constituents in the dark on the investigations being conducted behind closed doors.”
Rep. Debbie Lesko: She is on the Judiciary
Committee and was among the House Republicans who stormed one of the closed-door witness interviews in an effort to spotlight a process she thinks is geared only toward ousting Trump.
“What are we doing here? The Judiciary Committee in its 206-year history has never reported articles of impeachment against a president without first conducting an impeachment inquiry authorized by the full House vote,” she said during a hearing. “This resolution is yet another example of the majority utilizing this taxpayer-funded committee to influence the 2020 presidential election. That’s all it is. It’s a show.”
Rep. Andy Biggs: In his second term, Biggs heads the House Freedom Caucus, which is perhaps Trump’s most ardent core of support on Capitol Hill. Biggs, Arizona’s third member of the Judiciary Committee, has attacked the process and the motives of those involved in the inquiry.
“It’s not a fair process. It’s not due process. It’s (House Intelligence Committee Chairman) Adam Schiff’s process and (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi’s process,” he said on Fox News. “If you do it that way, they are in a dangerous situation by opening this thing up because the whole world will Adam Schiff try to control everything, and that’s not good for the Democrats.”
Rep. Paul Gosar: He represents Arizona’s most Republican-dominated district and is among Trump’s most ardent defenders in Washington. He routinely excoriated Democrats for their efforts probing Russian interference, and has flatly said he will not impeach the president.
“I am not voting for impeachment. Time and time they have investigated this, with nothing there,” he told the Verde Independent.
Arizona’s senators
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: In the first year of her six-year term, the Democratic senator has cited the “serious allegations” against Trump and has urged all senators to not prejudge the evidence in the event proceedings move to a trial phase in the upper chamber.
“Arizonans deserve a government that upholds our Constitutional values,” Sinema, an attorney, said in a September written statement. “Partisan politics have no place in addressing these serious allegations. This process may require the Senate to fulfill a Constitutional role, so it is the duty of all senators — including myself — to avoid pre-judging facts or reaching conclusions.”
Sinema was listed along with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in a recent New York Times story as a Democrat who may not vote to convict Trump.
Sen. Martha McSally: The freshman Republican who was appointed to the seat once held by Sen. John McCain, RAriz., after losing her 2018 Senate run, has the most to lose by the prospects of impeachment. She must stand before Arizona voters again in 2020.
Shortly after the House launched proceedings, McSally did not address Trump’s alleged conduct. She instead focused on the potential political consequences of impeachment and called the process “a total distraction” that is not at the top of voter’s minds: “People can make their voices heard at the ballot box, right,” she said then.
McSally has signed onto a resolution sponsored by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that condemns the impeachment inquiry.
During a Nov. 6 telephone town hall, McSally did not directly answer two separate questions from constituents questions pertaining to Trump’s requests for foreign political assistance. Instead, she lambasted what she described as “selective leaks” and the “liberal media.”