Pa. delegation stays along party lines
Wild joins Democrats in voting for both articles
WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation split in half in Wednesday’s historic impeachment vote, with all nine House Democrats supporting the articles of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and all nine Republicans opposing those charges.
The delegation’s vote reflected that of the full U.S. House of Representatives, where GOP lawmakers voted against impeachment and all but a handful of Democrats backed the third impeachment vote against a U.S. president.
Wednesday’s floor proceedings spanned nearly 12 hours, with more than half of Pennsylvania’s
congressional lawmakers — three Democrats and eight Republicans — heading to the microphones on the House floor during that time to explain the reasoning behind their votes.
Democrats argued that in asking Ukrainian leaders for an investigation of the son of a potential election opponent and withholding U.S. aid dollars, Trump violated the Constitution and endangered U.S. national security.
“When is it ever right for a president to coerce a foreign power to interfere in our elections?” asked Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery County. “When is it ever right for that president to withhold congressional-appropriated aid to that country?”
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, DDelaware County, argued that President Trump’s behavior “is
exactly what our founders feared most,” adding: “A government where the president puts his own interests above the people is not of the people.”
Republicans portrayed the impeachment proceeding as a damaging and politically motivated process involving flimsy charges. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from Butler County, compared impeachment to the Pearl Harbor bombing, saying it is “another date that will live in infamy.”
Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican whose district includes Carbon and Schuylkill counties, said impeachment has “eroded, if not wiped out” the trust that Americans have in Congress.
“Our communities are benefiting greatly from President Trump’s agenda: a booming economy, secure border, better trade deals, and a stronger military‚” Meuser said.
“Unfortunately, inside the halls of Congress, Democrats’ obsession with impeachment is all-consuming.”
Those who took to the floor included all three of Pennsylvania’s members of the House Judiciary Committee, the panel that drafted the two charges against Trump.
Absent from the floor debate were legislators who are expected to face the state’s toughest reelection battles next year. They include Lehigh Valley Congresswoman Susan Wild, whose 7th District includes Lehigh and Northampton counties.
In a statement after the vote, Wild said her votes “were based in law and our Constitution,” and were “made necessary by the president’s conduct.”
“Failure to condemn the solicitation of foreign influence in our elections would have set a dangerous precedent,” Wild said.
“Failure to condemn the blanket obstruction of a coequal branch of government would have set an equally dangerous precedent.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI supervisory agent who represents a Bucks County district that was evenly split in the last presidential election, also eschewed the floor debate. Fitzpatrick says Trump showed “poor judgment” in his interactions with Ukrainian leaders, but the GOP legislator criticized Democrats for what he says has been a politically driven process that should have been handled by nonpartisan law enforcement investigators.
As the vote began on the first article of impeachment, Fitzpatrick could be seen on the House floor, shaking the hand of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
In a brief conversation as he was leaving a procedural vote on the House floor Wednesday morning, Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Democrat representing a northeastern Pennsylvania district that voted for Trump in 2016, declined to elaborate on how he came to his “yes” vote. Cartwright referred a reporter to read the op-ed he wrote, simply calling it “a sad day.”
The House convened at 9 a.m. Wednesday to begin debating the charges against Trump, with several early votes as Republicans used procedural moves intended to slow the process and signal their opposition to the impeachment proceedings.
A few Pennsylvania legislators could be seen seated on the House floor throughout the day, listening to their colleagues as the debate wound on through the afternoon.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, legislative activity continued as it would have on any other day, with Wild and Fitzpatrick heading to a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting for part of the morning.
With Wednesday evening’s votes, the impeachment proceeding now heads to the Senate, where legislators will serve as jurors as the president stands trial.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in September joined those calling for Trump’s impeachment, a shift from saying previously that he would not take a position until it was time to vote on any charges brought by the House.
Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey has said throughout the fall that Trump’s interactions with Ukraine were inappropriate but not impeachable.
Asked Wednesday about the articles under debate in the House, Toomey said he hasn’t yet read them and will do so when the House finished its part of the process.
“We know how this is going to end in the House, and we know how it’s very likely to end in the Senate,” Toomey said.