White House assails O’Halleran
Arizona representative will vote to impeach
The White House lashed out at Rep. Tom O’Halleran in a statement Tuesday, citing the Arizona Democrat’s support for impeachment and calling him an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The statement Tuesday was part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure 31 House Democrats, who represent districts Trump won in 2016, before the final vote on impeachment on likely today.
O’Halleran said Friday he would vote to impeach the president for abuse of power, saying Trump “bribed the nation of Ukraine by withholding military aid they had already been
promised in exchange for help investigating a political opponent.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Steven Groves hit back in a statement on Tuesday.
“Congressman Tom O’Halleran told Arizonans he would fight for border security and middle-class families. Instead of working across the aisle with President Trump on these important issues, O’Halleran has locked arms with Nancy Pelosi and progressive Democrats trying to impeach President Trump,” Groves said.
“Rest assured, this will not stop the President from focusing on free and fair trade deals, growing our economy, and actually securing our Southern border.”
O’Halleran didn’t directly respond to the White House comments. Instead, he maintained he’s working on the issues that his constituents care about.
“I am focused on the important issues facing hardworking Arizona families — improving cost and quality of our health care, growing our rural economies, and supporting our veterans,” he said in a statement. “Last week, the House voted to pass H.R. 3, historic legislation to lower the high costs of prescription drugs that included my amendment to improve health care access in rural areas, and expand Medicare to cover vision services for the first time in the program’s history.
“This year alone, I have held 26 town hall meetings to hear from constituents across our state, secured funding for and seen groundbreaking on a new veterans nursing home in Flagstaff, and returned hundreds of thousands of dollars to constituents in owed back pay and benefits from federal agencies. This fall, the President signed my bill to expand federal court access to rural communities into law.
“I am focused on accomplishing real goals for Arizonans.”
The heat from the White House is in addition to a broader pressure campaign from Trump’s conservative allies, who are running ads on TV and on social media sites against what they call the “Dirty 30,” according to Politico.
The term is intended to describe the districts across the country that have Democrats where Trump won. One of the 31 House Democrats in such a district is expected to switch parties and become a Republican.
The White House also lashed out at Pelosi, too.
On Tuesday, Trump sent the California Democrat a six-page letter “to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of Representatives.”
“You have developed a full-fledged case of what many in the media call Trump Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it!” Trump wrote.
O’Halleran won his first term in Congress in 2016, the same night Trump won in that district by 1 percentage point. Trump carried Arizona by 3.5 percentage points overall.
O’Halleran won a second term year by 7.7 percentage points.
In Washington, the former Chicago police detective has been relatively moderate.
O’Halleran voted with Trump’s preferred positions 54 percent of the time in his first two years in office, but only 4 percent since January, when Democrats took control of the House, according to figures tracked by the website FiveThirtyEight.
O’Halleran is one of the Democrats whose support for impeachment was seen as more delicate, politically.
Only two Democrats so far have indicated they plan to vote against impeaching Trump, and one of those two, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J., is expected to become a Republican over the issue.
O’Halleran is facing a pair of primary challengers among fellow Democrats. Four Republicans are vying for his job as well. last