OPINION | This article contains opinion. This site is licensed to publish this content.
Rep. John Katko of NY publicly stated that he will vote for Trump’s impeachmentregar5ding his role in inciting the violent mob at the Capitol, according to the Hill.
“To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” Katko said in the statement. “For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this president.”
“It cannot be ignored that President Trump encouraged this insurrection – both on social media ahead of January 6th, and in his speech that day,” Katko added. “By deliberately promoting baseless theories suggesting the election was somehow stolen, the president created a combustible environment of misinformation, disenfranchisement, and division. When this manifested in violent acts on January 6th, he refused to promptly and forcefully call it off, putting countless lives in danger.”
“I’ll vote the right way, you know, if I’m presented with that,” Kinzinger said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” the day before House Democrats introduced the article of impeachment. “I just think it’s probably not the smartest move right now, but I think that’s going to be out of my hands.”
From The Hill:
No House Republicans joined on to Trump’s first impeachment and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) was the only Republican senator to vote to convict the president, but a number of GOP lawmakers in both chambers have already called on Trump to resign over last week’s riot, raising the prospect that some could jump the aisle to vote to impeach and convict.
The riot and impeachment have put GOP lawmakers in a bind, on the one hand looking to keep the support of a base that still supports the president and on the other looking to issue some kind of reprimand over the bedlam Trump helped fuel.
Cheney, a top GOP Trump critic who opposed efforts by those in her party to overturn the certification of Biden’s election victory, became the first member of GOP leadership to signal that they would support the impeachment effort.
