Here are the House Republicans who say they’ll vote in favor of impeaching Trump
A growing number of Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have said they’ll vote in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
House Democrats on Monday introduced an article of impeachment with more than 200 cosponsors against Trump for “incitement of insurrection” following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob in support of the president, which lawmakers from both parties have in part blamed on Trump’s rhetoric.
Before the siege, Trump — who has continuously touted false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election — spoke to a rally of his supporters and urged them to march on Capitol Hill.
Rioters then did and stormed the Capitol as Congress was convened to certify the Electoral College results.
Five people have died as a result of the attack, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. Dozens of other law enforcement officers were injured and dozens of rioters have been arrested.
The House is expected to debate and vote on the article of impeachment Wednesday. If it passes, it will make Trump the first president in U.S. History to be impeached more than once.
In December 2019, when the House voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, no Republican members voted in favor of impeachment and Trump was acquitted by the Senate in February 2020.
But at least six Republicans as of Wednesday afternoon have said they’ll vote in favor of impeaching Trump this time.
Most recently, Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington tweeted a statement Wednesday afternoon saying he would vote in favor of impeachment. He also announced he would do so on the House floor.
“Turning a blind eye to this brutal assault on our Republic is not an option,” he wrote in the statement. “A vote against this impeachment is is a vote to validate the unacceptable violence we witnessed in our nation’s capital. It is also a vote to condone President Trump’s inaction.”
House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney from Wyoming wrote in a statement explaining her decision to vote in favor of impeaching Trump that “none of this would have happened without the president.”
“The president could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence,” she wrote Tuesday. “He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Cheney had reportedly said in private, before publicly announcing her support, that she was in favor of impeachment efforts, according to Politico.
Rep. John Katko from New York also released a statement Tuesday explaining his decision.
“To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” he wrote. “For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who has been a critic of Trump and who previously said he would “vote the right way,” confirmed Tuesday he will vote in favor of impeachment. Kinzinger had also called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and strip Trump of his powers.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the president of the United States encouraged an angry mob to storm the United States Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes,” he wrote in a statement Tuesday. “This angry mob turned violent and caused destruction to our nation’s symbol of democracy.”
Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington and Fred Upton of Michigan have also joined Republicans who say they’ll vote in favor of impeachment.
“The president’s offenses, in my reading of the Constitution, were impeachable based on the indisputable evidence we already have,” Herrera Beutler wrote.
“I would have preferred a bipartisan, formal censure rather than a drawn-out impeachment process,” Upton wrote in a statement. “I fear this will now interfere with important legislative business and a new Biden Administration. But it is time to say: Enough is enough.”
Only a simple majority is needed to impeach Trump, which is likely with a Democratic-controlled House and at least some Republicans on board. But a subsequent conviction and removal is less likely. It would require a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate and therefore a significant number of Republicans to vote in favor.
The Senate is out of session until Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, which also makes the timing complicated, though the president could still be impeached and convicted after he leaves office.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, has privately said he supports impeachment efforts in the House as it will make it easier to “purge” Trump from the party in the future.
The impeachment vote Wednesday comes after Pence said in a Tuesday letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he will not invoke the 25th Amendment, cutting off another avenue for removing Trump from office in the waning days of his presidency.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 6:18 AM with the headline "Here are the House Republicans who say they’ll vote in favor of impeaching Trump."
