Who Are The Republicans On The Impeachment Committee

David G Valadao Of California

Mr. Valadaos district in the San Joaquin Valley is somewhat difficult to characterize politically, given his performance in it: He sailed to victories in 2012 and 2016 even though Democratic presidential candidates won the district by double-digit margins. In 2018, amid a Democratic wave election, he lost by less than 1,000 votes. He recaptured his seat last year even as Mr. Biden ran up an 11-point margin in the district.

What is clearer is that Mr. Valadaos survival in such a skittish district is seen as important to Republican efforts to recapture the House. That may explain why, despite his impeachment vote, Mr. McCarthy, now a vociferous Trump ally, has been helping Mr. Valadao raise money.

For his part, Mr. Valadao has been a reliable Republican vote in the House since his support for impeachment and has said very little about it in the intervening months, aside from voting for Mr. Katkos doomed Jan. 6 commission.

But he has expressed some solidarity with other pro-impeachment Republicans: He appeared at a fund-raiser for Mr. Newhouse and donated to eight others all except Ms. Cheney, whose political action committee donated $5,000 to Mr. Valadao.

So far, he faces only weak opposition: His leading primary challenger lost a Republican primary for Congress in New Mexico last year.

Reached by phone on Friday, Mr. Valadao showed no interest in discussing his relationship with the former president. I have a comms director, he said. Have a nice day. Goodbye.

Trump Says He Wants To Box Biden On 9/11

Roughly two-dozen House Republicans on Wednesday stormed a closed-door deposition in secure House Intelligence Committee spaces to rail against the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry, a political stunt ratcheting up the GOP complaints about the process that delayed Wednesday’s scheduled deposition for five hours.

Peter Meijer Of Michigan

Mr. Meijer, an heir to a major grocery store chain and an Army veteran of the Iraq war, was in his second week in Congress when he voted to impeach Mr. Trump. Since then, he has consistently warned of the dangers of parroting the lie of a stolen election.

He has also been blunt about the threats he and others, like Mr. Gonzalez, have faced for staking out that position. At an event this summer, he said, a woman told him that he would shortly be arrested for treason and hauled before a military tribunal, presumably to be shot.

Mr. Trump has yet to endorse a primary challenger to Mr. Meijer. He is a formidable incumbent: Although the former president narrowly carried the West Michigan district, Mr. Meijer outperformed Mr. Trump. And the districts voters are known for an independent streak, having previously elected Justin Amash, the Republican-turned-Libertarian.

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President Trump Committed Impeachable Offenses Three Scholars Invited By Democrats Testified

Three constitutional scholars invited by Democrats to testify at the first impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committeesaid that President Trumps efforts to pressure Ukraine for political gain clearly met the historical definition of impeachable offenses.

Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard, argued that attempts by Mr. Trump to withhold a White House meeting and military assistance from Ukraine as leverage for political favors constitute impeachable conduct, as was the act of soliciting foreign assistance on a phone call with Ukraines leader.

President Trump has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors by corruptly abusing the office of the presidency, Mr. Feldman said. Specifically, President Trump has abused his office by corruptly soliciting President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations of his political rivals in order to gain personal advantage, including in the 2020 presidential election.

Michael J. Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina, argued that Mr. Trump had committed several impeachable offenses by taking actions regarding Ukraine that were worse than Richard Nixons misconduct during Watergate.

If left unchecked, the president will likely continue his pattern of soliciting foreign interference on his behalf in the next election, Mr. Gerhardt said.

Jerrold Nadler Chairman Of The House Judiciary Committee

Why Pelosi probably picked him: The New York Democrat leads the committee traditionally in charge of impeachment. He took Schiffs impeachment inquiry down the home stretch, turning it into actual impeachment by helping draft the two articles of impeachment against Trump and then debating and passing them out of his committee for the full House to eventually approve.

Nadler has served in Congress for nearly three decades and has plenty of scars to show for it: from battling the National Security Agency on wiretapping Americans, slamming recent police brutality cases in New York, and writing the House Democrats amicus briefs in two major Supreme Court cases on same-sex marriage. Nadler knows his way around a contentious fight. He and Trump also have a feud going back decades over Nadlers opposing a development Trump wanted in New York. Nadler was in Congress for President Bill Clintons impeachment, as well, and opposed it, earning him national attention.

His big moment on impeachment so far: Shepherding the articles of impeachment through Congress, which first had to survive a 14-hour debate in his committee. Democrats were on a tight, self-imposed timeline to pass the articles before the Christmas break, lest they be accused of trying to impeach a president in an election year.

It was all Republican senators needed to criticize Democrats. One potential swing vote on witnesses, Sen. Lisa Murkowski , told reporter she was offended by Nadlers comments.

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Request For Grand Jury Materials

House Democrats have requested the records from the grand jury proceedings that were part of the Mueller investigation, stating that the material was needed to investigate whether or not articles of impeachment should include perjury charges against the president based on his responses to the Mueller probe. The district court decided in their favor, but two of the three judges on an appeals court panel seemed skeptical. They set oral arguments for January 3, 2020. On March 10, 2020 the panel ruled 21 in favor of releasing the material to Congress.

On January 3, lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee urged the court to enforce the subpoena against McGahn, arguing that McGahn’s testimony could provide the basis for new articles of impeachment against the President. When Trump-appointed judges asked what might happen if the courts demurred, Letter raised the specter of chaos and civil war, raising the prospect of a pitched gun battle between the Sergeant at arms and the attorney general’s security detail.

Republicans Slam Dems As Committee Readies Impeachment Resolution For Floor Vote

House Republicans railed against their Democratic colleagues impeachment resolution Wednesday as the Rules Committee readied the measure for a full floor vote, calling it a fishing expedition that restricts GOP members input and infringes on the due process rights of President Donald Trump.

Republican members introduced a barrage of dead-on-arrival amendments during the committee markup of the measure, each one failing along party lines. The proposed changes attempted in part to restrict the potential scope of the impeachment inquiry as Democrats move toward the public-facing phase of the probe. The committee is comprised of nine Democrats and four Republicans.

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Rep Tim Ryan: Probe Underway On Whether Members Gave Capitol Tours To Rioters

7. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington’s 3rd: Herrera Beutler was swept in with the Tea Party wave in 2010, but her district is a moderate one. Trump won it 51% to 47%. Herrera Beutler gained prominence several years ago for giving birth to a child three months early, born without kidneys and a rare syndrome. Her daughter, Abigail, became the first to survive the often-fatal condition. The now-mother of three and congresswoman from southwest Washington state declared on the House floor her vote in favor of impeachment: “I’m not choosing sides, I’m choosing truth.”

8. Rep. Peter Meijer, Michigan’s 3rd: Meijer is a freshman, who won his seat with 53% of the vote. He represents a district that was previously held by Justin Amash, the former Republican-turned-independent who voted in favor of Trump’s impeachment in 2019. Meijer, a Columbia University grad who served in Afghanistan, is a social conservative in favor of restrictions on abortion rights and against restrictions on gun rights and religious freedoms. But he said Trump showed no “courage” and “betrayed millions with claims of a ‘stolen election.’ ” He added, “The one man who could have restored order, prevented the deaths of five Americans including a Capitol police officer, and avoided the desecration of our Capitol, shrank from leadership when our country needed it most.”

Constitutionality Of Senate Trial Of Former President

The question of whether the Senate can hold a trial for and convict a former president is unsettled. Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution provides:

Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution, also states the following:

J. Michael Luttig, who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for 25 years, said that such a trial would be unconstitutional. He interpreted the language of Section 4 to refer to an official in office.

Luttig said, The very concept of constitutional impeachment presupposes the impeachment, conviction and removal of a president who is, at the time of his impeachment, an incumbent in the office from which he is removed. Indeed, that was the purpose of the impeachment power, to remove from office a president or other civil official before he could further harm the nation from the office he then occupies.

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Why Didnt The Trial Begin While Trump Was Still In Office

The articles of impeachment were not sent to the Senate immediately since the Senate wouldnt be in session until the day before Joe Bidens inauguration. The Democrats waited further until an agreement was reached in the Senate for the power-sharing structure that would regulate how the evenly split Senate would operate going forward. Under an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the trial was delayed to give the Senate more time to get Bidens nominees for his Cabinet approved.

John Katko Of New York

Mr. Katkos moderate brand of politics has returned him to Washington for four terms despite his seats perennial status as a top Democratic target, and he has said he is running again in 2022.

In 2022, his real threat may come from the right. Mr. Trump has yet to endorse a primary challenger but he wrote to New York Republican leaders in June of his eagerness to do so, vowing: Katko will never win again.

Far from backing down, Mr. Katko on Wednesday told The Syracuse Post-Standard that Mr. Trump should not be the leader of the Republican Party. It would have been a lot easier if I didnt vote on the impeachment vote, but I did it because it was the right thing to do, he said.

The top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, Mr. Katko labored this year to negotiate with Democrats on the makeup and scope of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. But Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, rejected a compromise endorsed by Mr. Katko because it would not have examined unrelated political violence associated with the left.

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Tom Rice Of South Carolina

None of the 10 Republican votes to impeach was as surprising as that of Mr. Rice, a conservative who had to that point never spoken out against Mr. Trump. It shocked his constituents in northeastern South Carolina and set off a land rush of a dozen Republicans aiming to unseat him.

Among them are a former Trump administration official and several candidates who declared that they would not have voted to certify Mr. Bidens victory.

Mr. Rices case may present one of the purest tests yet of Mr. Trumps hold on the party: There is no other issue in which he has broken with the former president or with Republican leadership. But his impeachment vote has been forgotten by no one: not his primary opponents, not the Trumpian party base, and not Mr. Trump himself.

What do you call somebody who votes with Trump 99 percent of the time? Mr. Rice joked in a June interview with The Washington Post. A traitor.

Republican Lawmakers Grew Exasperated With Democratic Scholars Accusing Them Of Personal Anti

Several Republicans accused the three scholars invited by Democrats as having arrived at the hearing with an anti-Trump bias.

Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida noted that Mr. Gerhardt contributed four times to former President Barack Obama, and that Ms. Karlan donated to the campaign of Mr. Obama, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.

Representative Tom McClintock, Republican of California, tried without success to get the witnesses to raise their hands if they voted for Mr. Trump.

I have the right to a secret ballot, Ms. Karlan objected.

Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, asserted that Mr. Gerhardt, Ms. Karlan and Mr. Feldman arrived with their minds made up about whether the president should be impeached and removed from office.

What Im suggesting to you today is a reckless bias coming in here, Mr. Biggs said. Youre not fact witnesses. Youre supposed to be talking about what the law is. But you came in with a preconceived notion and bias.

The witnesses did not always sit and take it. After Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the panels top Republican, accused the scholars of failing to have any knowledge of the facts of the impeachment case, Ms. Karlan took him to task.

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Impeachment: Republicans Issue Rebuttal To Intel Committee Report

Democrats and Republicans try to influence public opinion with dueling impeachment reports.

On Dec. 3, the House Intelligence Committee released a full report on its impeachment investigation. The report now goes to the House Judiciary Committee although its chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler , already scheduled the first hearing for Dec. 4. So it appears the report is more for public consumption than anything else.

Prior to the reports release, Republicans on the Intelligence Committee read it behind closed doors, and they released their 123-page rebuttal earlier in the day. Liberty Nation has posted both the full HPSCI report and the GOP rebuttal.

In their report, Republicans used witness testimony, statements by President Donald Trump and Ukrainian government officials, as well as media reports, to lay out their case that the HPSCI investigation yielded no proof that the president was guilty of the charges leveled against him.

Trump Impeachment Inquiry: Three Republican Claims Fact

BBC News

President Trump and his Republican supporters are fighting hard to control the narrative of the ongoing impeachment hearings, hitting back with their own allegations against Democrats and the whistleblower at the origin of the affair.

They’re also questioning the actions of Ukrainian politicians, as well as pushing for greater scrutiny of allegations that Joe Biden and his son Hunter were up to no good in Ukraine.

Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the committee holding the impeachment hearings, made three specific claims in his opening statement on Tuesday.

So what are these allegations and how valid are they?

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Pelosi Intends To Appoint A Second Republican To The Jan 6 Committee

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to name a second Republican critic of Donald Trump, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, to a special committee investigating the Capitol riot.
• Pelosi already put Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on the select committee.
• Cheney and Kinzinger were among the 10 House Republicans to vote for Trumps second impeachment and the only two Republicans who voted last month to form the special committee.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she intends to name a second Republican critic of Donald Trump, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, to a special committee investigating the Capitol riot and she pledged that the Democratic-majority panel will find the truth.

With the committee set to hold its first meeting on Tuesday, hearing from police officers who battled the rioters on Jan. 6, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has said the GOP will not participate after Pelosi, D-Calif., refused to accept the members he picked.

Pelosi, who already put Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on the select committee, now says she intends to add Kinzinger, R-Ill. Cheney and Kinzinger were among the 10 House Republicans to vote for Trumps second impeachment and the only two Republicans who voted last month to form the special committee.

That would be my plan, Pelosi said on ABCs This Week.

Pressed on when she would make an announcement, Pelosi said: Perhaps after I speak with Adam Kinzinger That is the direction that I would be going on.

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One Voted Last Week Against Certifying Electoral College Results

Ten Republicans voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump, exactly one week after a violent attack on the Capitol by the presidents supporters.

The Democrat-led House voted 232-197 to approve one article of impeachment against Trump, charging the president with incitement of insurrection.

The GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach the president from their own party included Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House. Cheneys vote has prompted House Republicans to call on her to step down as conference chairwoman.

While many in the group have a history of breaking with their party, the yes votes included several with a strong record of supporting Trump and one, South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice, who voted last week against certifying President-elect Joe Bidens Electoral College victory in two states.

Most Republicans in the House opposed impeachment, with many arguing the hurried process would further divide the country. But for these 10 Republicans who supported impeachment, the fact that Trump incited the riot at the Capitol was indisputable.

Four Republicans did not vote on impeachment, including Texas Rep. Kay Granger, who recently tested positive for COVID-19. The others were Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland, Greg Murphy of North Carolina and Daniel Webster of Florida.

Here are the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump:

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