Among the Republican lawmakers who will vote to impeach President Trump are Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y.
Cheney is the first member of House GOP leadership to support Trump’s impeachment. Cheney’s statement issued on Tuesday evening shows her frustration about the mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6.
“Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough,” her statement reads. “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”
The third-ranking Republican official explained: “None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. 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.”
Katko previously announced that he would support impeachment following Trump's actions that triggered the mob that stormed the US Capitol last week. Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., will also join Cheney and Katko.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday evening that he will not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
“I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution,” Pence wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Pence did not cite the issue of impeachment. However, he did call on Congress “to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment” as “we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden as the next President of the United States.”
The House plans to vote Wednesday on whether to impeach Trump due to high crimes and misdemeanors. Democrats announced that they have enough votes to impeach the president for the second time.
Pelosi named nine impeachment managers for the trial: Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will serve as the lead manager. He will be joined by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.
Once Trump has been impeached by the House, the Senate will determine his conviction. Meanwhile, a conviction in the Senate would prevent Trump from running an elective office in the future and receiving perks given to former presidents.
The New York Times reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he thinks Trump committed impeachable acts. The newspaper did not confirm whether McConnell would vote to impeach the president.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection,” Kinzinger said in her statement. “So in assessing the articles of impeachment brought before the House, I must consider: if these actions – the Article II branch inciting a deadly insurrection against the Article I branch – are not worthy of impeachment, then what is an impeachable offense?”
“Good for her for honoring her oath of office,” Pelosi said in response to Cheney’s support for impeachment. “Would that more Republicans would honor their oaths of office.”
