These members of Congress split with their party on the Trump impeachment vote
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump, sending charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress to the Senate.
The House voted to impeach the president on the abuse of power article mostly along party lines. Two Democrats broke with their party and voted against the first impeachment charge, while one — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii — voted present. No Republicans sided with Democrats in that vote. To impeach the president, 216 votes were needed.
In the second vote, three Democrats voted no on the charge of obstruction of Congress, while Gabbard again voted present. No Republicans split with their party.
Independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, a former Republican, voted to impeach the president on both articles.
This is just the third time in history a sitting president has been impeached.
The House Judiciary Committee released its report late Sunday outlining the two articles of impeachment and evidence against Trump.
The report states: “Taken together, the articles charge that President Trump has placed his personal, political interests above our national security, our free and fair elections, and our system of checks and balances. He has engaged in a pattern of misconduct that will continue if left unchecked. Accordingly, President Trump should be impeached and removed from office.”
Democrats in the House say Trump withheld $400 million in military aid from Ukraine in order to get that country to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified that Trump demanded a “quid pro quo” for release of a military aid package to Ukraine. “Was there a ‘quid pro quo’?...The answer is yes,” Sondland said in prepared testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in November.
Here are the Democrats who didn’t vote on party lines:
▪ Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, a conservative Democrat, said over the weekend that he would join the Republican Party over the impeachment vote. Van Drew’s announcement brought resignations from many members of his senior staff, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “President Trump wants Van Drew to vote against impeachment as a Democrat before he makes the switch,” CBS News reported this week.
▪ Collin Peterson of Minnesota told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press recently that “(impeachment) is dividing the country for no good reason because he’s not going to be thrown out of office.” He told the newspaper that the question of removing Trump from office should be settled in next year’s election. “If people don’t like Trump, they can vote against him,” he said, according to the newspaper. In a statement in October, Peterson said “without support from Senate Republicans, going down this path is a mistake.”
▪ Jared Golden of Maine voted for the first article of impeachment but against the second, explaining his split vote in an extensive Facebook post.
▪ Gabbard, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said recently that she was undecided on how she would vote on impeachment, according to CNN. “I have had concerns for a long time about impeachment being pursued for partisan reasons,” the 2020 presidential candidate said, according to CNN. “Pursuing impeachment for partisan reasons is something that will only further divide an already divided country and it actually undermines our democracy.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 5:28 PM with the headline "These members of Congress split with their party on the Trump impeachment vote."
