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Vote Alert: Advancing absurd articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump

Vote Alert: Advancing absurd articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump

This House resolution allowed the House to consider and vote on articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump. This procedural vote set the terms of debate on the articles of impeachment, divided the impeachment resolution between its two articles, required a vote on each article after debate, and cleared the way for the House to appoint impeachment managers to transfer the articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate after they were passed by the House. Blocking this resolution would have prevented the House from impeaching the president.

Impeachment of a sitting U.S. president is serious. The charges brought against President Trump in the articles of impeachment allege that the president abused his power by soliciting the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 election and that the president obstructed Congress by defying subpoenas issued by the House impeachment inquiry. These charges do not withstand scrutiny and are far from evidence that President Trump should be removed from office.

Article I of the impeachment resolution accuses the president of corruptly “soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage.” President Trump is accused of pressuring Ukraine into investigating his 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, by withholding $391 million in foreign aid appropriated by Congress. Additionally the president is accused of asking Ukraine to investigate a “discredited theory promoted by Russia alleging that Ukraine—rather than Russia—interfered in the 2016 United States Presidential election.” Article I concludes by alleging, “President Trump abused the powers of the Presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit.”

These allegations fail on several counts. 1) President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky both deny that any pressure was applied on Ukraine to investigate Biden or 2016 election interference, and a record of their phone call shows no evidence of Trump making demands of Ukraine. 2) It is within a president’s powers to add conditions to foreign aid, and past presidents have done so. Regardless, Ukraine was not aware that any aid was delayed or aware of any conditions for its release. 3) The aid was released after 84 days without any of Trump’s alleged demands fulfilled. 4) There are legitimate questions surrounding the Biden family’s relationships with Ukraine and possible corruption on an even larger scale, and it is in the national interest, not President Trump’s personal political interest, to uproot corruption involving public figures and especially potential presidential candidates. It ought to be clear that President Trump did not abuse his power with regard to Ukraine for his own personal interest.

Article II of the impeachment resolution accuses President Trump of obstructing Congress by directing “the unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives pursuant to its ‘sole Power of Impeachment’.” The House makes a separation of powers claim against the president, alleging that he unconstitutionally “assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the ‘sole Power of Impeachment’ vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives.” The president allegedly abused his powers by directing the White House and executive branch agencies and offices to defy lawful subpoenas by withholding documents and records and directing executive branch officials to defy subpoenas to appear to testify.

The charge of “obstructing Congress” in Article II is absurd on its face. Our constitutional republic is established on a framework that creates three separate but equal branches of government that are designed to conflict with each other’s powers and interests. President Trump challenged Congress’ subpoena authority by refusing to answer the subpoenas and by taking his case to court. The Supreme Court has decided to hear all three of the president’s subpoena challenges and issue a judgment resolving the dispute. This impeachment charge essentially says that a U.S. president is not permitted to challenge congressional subpoenas in court. In accusing President Trump of assuming legislative power over impeachment, Congress essentially assumes judicial power denying the president’s right to challenge Congress and declaring its own subpoenas to be unquestionable. How can Congress demand the president be removed from office for assuming another branch’s constitutional powers and then do the very same thing itself? That is nonsensical and is certainly not a basis to remove the president from office.

The charges against President Trump in the two articles of impeachment do not withstand fact-based scrutiny or the constitutional requirement of “high crimes or misdemeanors” for impeaching a president and removing him from office. This resolution that brought the articles of impeachment to the House floor should have been rejected by the House so that the matter of impeaching the president under these insufficient and ridiculous charges could be laid to rest and members of Congress could return to the serious business of governing the country.

The House of Representatives voted to approve the resolution and advance the articles of impeachment on December 18, 2019, at 11:55 a.m. ET in a roll call vote of 228 – 197.

To see how your elected officials stack up or other votes that compose the Liberty Score, view our full scorecard here.

CR position: NO


U.S. House of Representatives*

*Minority party in italics

 AYEs — 228

Adams

Aguilar

Allred

Amash

Axne

Barragán

Bass

Beatty

Bera

Beyer

Bishop (GA)

Blumenauer

Blunt Rochester

Bonamici

Boyle, Brendan F.

Brindisi

Brown (MD)

Brownley (CA)

Bustos

Butterfield

Carbajal

Cárdenas

Carson (IN)

Cartwright

Case

Casten (IL)

Castor (FL)

Castro (TX)

Chu, Judy

Cicilline

Cisneros

Clark (MA)

Clarke (NY)

Clay

Cleaver

Clyburn

Cohen

Connolly

Cooper

Correa

Costa

Courtney

Cox (CA)

Craig

Crist

Crow

Cuellar

Cunningham

Davids (KS)

Davis (CA)

Davis, Danny K.

Dean

DeFazio

DeGette

DeLauro

DelBene

Delgado

Demings

DeSaulnier

Deutch

Dingell

Doggett

Doyle, Michael F.

Engel

Escobar

Eshoo

Espaillat

Evans

Finkenauer

Fletcher

Foster

Frankel

Fudge

Garamendi

García (IL)

Garcia (TX)

Golden

Gomez

Gonzalez (TX)

Gottheimer

Green, Al (TX)

Grijalva

Haaland

Harder (CA)

Hastings

Hayes

Heck

Higgins (NY)

Himes

Horn, Kendra S.

Horsford

Houlahan

Hoyer

Huffman

Jackson Lee

Jayapal

Jeffries

Johnson (GA)

Johnson (TX)

Kaptur

Keating

Kelly (IL)

Kennedy

Khanna

Kildee

Kilmer

Kim

Kind

Kirkpatrick

Krishnamoorthi

Kuster (NH)

Lamb

Langevin

Larsen (WA)

Larson (CT)

Lawrence

Lawson (FL)

Lee (CA)

Lee (NV)

Levin (CA)

Levin (MI)

Lewis

Lieu, Ted

Lipinski

Loebsack

Lofgren

Lowenthal

Lowey

Luján

Luria

Lynch

Malinowski

Maloney, Carolyn B.

Maloney, Sean

Matsui

McAdams

McBath

McCollum

McEachin

McGovern

McNerney

Meeks

Meng

Moore

Morelle

Moulton

Mucarsel-Powell

Murphy (FL)

Nadler

Napolitano

Neal

Neguse

Norcross

O'Halleran

Ocasio-Cortez

Omar

Pallone

Panetta

Pappas

Pascrell

Payne

Perlmutter

Peters

Phillips

Pingree

Pocan

Porter

Pressley

Price (NC)

Quigley

Raskin

Rice (NY)

Richmond

Rose (NY)

Rouda

Roybal-Allard

Ruiz

Ruppersberger

Rush

Ryan

Sánchez

Sarbanes

Scanlon

Schakowsky

Schiff

Schneider

Schrader

Schrier

Scott (VA)

Scott, David

Sewell (AL)

Shalala

Sherman

Sherrill

Sires

Slotkin

Smith (WA)

Soto

Spanberger

Speier

Stanton

Stevens

Suozzi

Swalwell (CA)

Takano

Thompson (CA)

Thompson (MS)

Titus

Tlaib

Tonko

Torres (CA)

Torres Small (NM)

Trahan

Trone

Underwood

Vargas

Veasey

Vela

Velázquez

Visclosky

Wasserman Schultz

Waters

Watson Coleman

Welch

Wexton

Wild

Wilson (FL)

Yarmuth

NOEs — 197

Abraham

Aderholt

Allen

Amodei

Armstrong

Arrington

Babin

Bacon

Baird

Balderson

Banks

Barr

Bergman

Biggs

Bilirakis

Bishop (NC)

Bishop (UT)

Bost

Brady

Brooks (AL)

Brooks (IN)

Buchanan

Buck

Bucshon

Budd

Burchett

Burgess

Byrne

Calvert

Carter (GA)

Carter (TX)

Chabot

Cheney

Cline

Cloud

Cole

Collins (GA)

Comer

Conaway

Cook

Crawford

Crenshaw

Curtis

Davidson (OH)

Davis, Rodney

DesJarlais

Diaz-Balart

Duncan

Dunn

Emmer

Estes

Ferguson

Fitzpatrick

Fleischmann

Flores

Fortenberry

Foxx (NC)

Fulcher

Gaetz

Gallagher

Gianforte

Gibbs

Gohmert

Gonzalez (OH)

Gooden

Gosar

Granger

Graves (GA)

Graves (LA)

Graves (MO)

Green (TN)

Griffith

Grothman

Guest

Guthrie

Hagedorn

Harris

Hartzler

Hern, Kevin

Herrera Beutler

Hice (GA)

Higgins (LA)

Hill (AR)

Holding

Hollingsworth

Hudson

Huizenga

Hurd (TX)

Johnson (LA)

Johnson (OH)

Johnson (SD)

Jordan

Joyce (OH)

Joyce (PA)

Katko

Keller

Kelly (MS)

Kelly (PA)

King (IA)

King (NY)

Kinzinger

Kustoff (TN)

LaHood

LaMalfa

Lamborn

Latta

Lesko

Long

Loudermilk

Lucas

Luetkemeyer

Marchant

Marshall

Massie

Mast

McCarthy

McCaul

McClintock

McHenry

McKinley

Meadows

Meuser

Miller

Mitchell

Moolenaar

Mooney (WV)

Mullin

Murphy (NC)

Newhouse

Norman

Nunes

Olson

Palazzo

Palmer

Pence

Perry

Peterson

Posey

Ratcliffe

Reed

Reschenthaler

Rice (SC)

Riggleman

Roby

Rodgers (WA)

Roe, David P.

Rogers (AL)

Rogers (KY)

Rooney (FL)

Rose, John W.

Rouzer

Roy

Rutherford

Scalise

Schweikert

Scott, Austin

Sensenbrenner

Simpson

Smith (MO)

Smith (NE)

Smith (NJ)

Smucker

Spano

Stauber

Stefanik

Steil

Steube

Stewart

Stivers

Taylor

Thompson (PA)

Thornberry

Timmons

Tipton

Turner

Upton

Van Drew

Wagner

Walberg

Walden

Walker

Walorski

Waltz

Watkins

Weber (TX)

Webster (FL)

Wenstrup

Westerman

Williams

Wilson (SC)

Wittman

Womack

Woodall

Wright

Yoho

Young

Zeldin

Not Voting — 5

Gabbard

Gallego

Hunter

Serrano

Shimkus

*Minority party in italics

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