ALSO INSIDE: Once again, Cohen and Kustoff are on opposite sides of impeachment.
For the second time in a little more than a year, the two congressmen from Shelby County reflected the deep partisan divides of the country when they voted Wednesday on the second impeachment of President Donald Trump.
U.S. Rep Steve Cohen, D-memphis, voted to impeach Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection. U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-shelby County, voted against the charge. The vote went largely along partisan lines with 10 Republicans joining Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
“As our county is experiencing this time of turmoil and uncertainty, we must work together to reconcile our differences and heal our nation,” Kustoff said in a statement. “Impeaching President Trump during his last seven days in office would only further divide us as Americans.”
The impeachment vote came a week after supporters of the president breached the U.S. Capitol, disrupting the certification of the electoral college vote. The violent mob echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud and sought to overturn the president’s defeat. Federal law enforcement have spent the past week
On Tuesday, when the House voted on resolution urging Trump be removed using the 25th Amendment, Cohen said, “This was an assault on the constitution; an assault on Congress. It was a felonious assault. It was an attempt to murder Congress and our processes to elect our president of the United States. It is the political equivalent of shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it.”
During debate of the impeachment resolution Wednesday, Cohen said, “Intelligence reports indicate that the people he said he loves and are special are going to attack this city and attack this Capitol next week. He has not asked them not to do it .... My worst fear is Jan. 20 because I think he will try to go out with a bang and take it away from Joe Biden.”
Cohen’s closing sentences were accompanied by shouts from some in the audience as he was told by the parliamentarian that his 30 seconds to speak had expired.
Minutes before Cohen spoke, Trump issued a statement that said, in part, “In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind...” It was unclear if Cohen was aware of the president’s statement.
Cohen, Kustoff have long reflected partisan divide
The split vote between the two congressmen comes in a political era full of them. Cohen and Kustoff, two men who attend the same synagogue, have had markedly different rhetoric throughout the Trump presidency. Cohen was an early advocate for impeaching Trump. He introduced articles of impeachment in 2017 when Trump fired then FBI Director James Comey — those articles were never taken up. Then, in 2019, Cohen voted to impeach Trump.
In public statements, appearances on cable news and social media, Cohen has often referred to the president as a danger to the country and its mode of government. After the Capitol riot last week, Cohen quickly supported impeaching Trump a second time.
Kustoff, who lives in Germantown and represents a wide swath of rural West Tennessee in the 8th Congressional District, has defended the president and voted against impeaching him in 2019. Kustoff also gave some credence to Trump’s claims of voter fraud, but split his votes on objecting to electoral college votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Before the building was breached, stalling the vote, Kustoff had said he would vote to object, citing claims of voter fraud nationwide. Then, he voted against objecting the certification of Arizona’s electoral college votes. Later, Kustoff reversed course, he voted for the objection against certifying Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.
The divide between Cohen and Kustoff over President Trump isn’t just Beltway politics. It also reflects the divide among their constituents and shows how Shelby County and Memphis, in particular, differs politically from the rural areas of West Tennessee that surround the city.
Cohen’s district is about half of Shelby County, particularly Memphis and Millington. His district voted overwhelmingly for former Vice President Joe Biden in November’s election. In some precincts
Kustoff’s holds the rest of Shelby County — Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, Lakeland, Arlington and part of east Memphis, which lean Republican. Kustoff also represents Carroll, Crockett, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Haywood, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale, Madison, Obion, Tipton, and Weakley counties. He also represents part of Benton County.
All of those rural West Tennessee counties, save Haywood, voted overwhelmingly for President Trump. Some counties such as Obion went for the president by more than 60 percentage points, showing that Trump’s support in rural Tennessee is strong, at least in November.