Cruz wrong about O’Rourke on impeachment

Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas says his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, opposes President Donald Trump in a uniquely crummy way.

In a July 17 press release, Cruz’s campaign called O’Rourke the nation’s “only candidate to the U.S. Senate to call for impeachment.”

We wondered: Is O’Rourke alone that way? Not so, we found, though it looks as if he’s the only Senate nominee openly inclined to launch impeachment proceedings.

The Constitution gives the House the power to impeach the president, vice president and other civil federal officials for treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. It gives the Senate the power of trying impeachments. It takes the concurrence of two-thirds of senators to convict and remove an official. In recent history, President Bill Clinton was impeached; he wasn’t convicted or removed.

Our search of the Nexis news database showed that as early as August 2017, O’Rourke said he’d vote for Trump’s impeachment. Most recently, The Dallas Morning News this month quoted O’Rourke saying that Trump merited impeachment for his performance alongside Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin.

O’Rourke said then: “Standing on stage in another country with the leader of another country who wants to and has sought to undermine this country, and to side with him over the United States — if I were asked to