U.S. Reps. Levin, McClain split on Trump impeachment vote
When the U.S. House of Representatives took a historic vote Wednesday to make President Donald Trump the first commander in chief to ever be impeached twice, Macomb County’s two lawmakers were split on the matter.
Just before 4:30 p.m. a majority of the U.S. House voted to impeach Trump for a second time, just a week after he encouraged loyalists to “fight like hell” against election results and a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The House vote on an article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection was still underway Wednesday, but the Democratic-led House had secured enough votes to im
peach Trump. Ten Republicans joined 222 Democrats in voting to impeach the president.
As has been the case for months, the two people who represent Macomb County had differing views. The county south of M-59, excluding Harrison Township, is represented by Democrat Andy Levin. The north end is in the 10th District, represented by Republican Lisa McClain, who was sworn in on Jan. 3 but has expressed support for Trump throughout her campaign for office and since being elected.
According to a statement put out by a spokesperson, as the House of Representatives considered an article to encourage Vice-President Mike Pence and cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, McClain called the moves against the president ‘divisive.’
“Impeachment is a backwards looking tactic when we are all wanting to move our nation forward. I will not be supporting this divisive measure at a time when our country needs to heal,” she said.
On Tuesday, McClain offered an impassioned plea to fellow House members against the moves led by Democrats but joined by some Republicans Wednesday.
“Can we all agree that at times, our emotions get in the way because we love this country so much? Whatever is good for one is good for the other,” McClain said. “We all have the same name on our jersey which is United States of America. Why don’t we start acting like it and let our actions follow our words? All of us. Impeachment only incites more division. I’m ready to come together — are you?”
Her words were contrasted by Levin, a secondterm Democrat whose district stretches into southern Oakland County.
“For two months, Donald Trump used the biggest megaphone in the world to organize a campaign of outright lies to overturn a free and fair election. On Jan. 6, he summoned and incited a mob of domestic terrorists to ‘fight like hell’ and sent them to ransack this Capitol in order to prevent us from formalizing his election loss,” he said on the House floor. “It was a grotesque orgy of deadly white supremacism, anti-Semitism and strongman rule. Today, we will do our duty and vote to remove the author of this horrifying chapter and banish him from public service.”
Among Michigan’s 14 representatives, all seven Democrats voted for impeachment while two of the seven Republicans — Fred Upton and Peter Meijer — broke ranks and voted for the measure.