WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said Tuesday that she will vote for articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump next week, becoming the first Colorado member of the House to say so.
During an early afternoon interview in her Washington office, DeGette hoisted personal copies of the Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution, along with a heavy white binder of evidence she has amassed, as she explained why she believes Trump’s behavior constitutes the most serious violations of a president’s oath of office in American history.
“If we don’t do this, if we don’t hold the executive accountable, then this will only embolden President Trump and heaven knows what he will do,” DeGette said.
On Tuesday morning, House Democratic leaders, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, announced two articles of impeachment against the president: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Standing in front of four American flags and a painting of George Washington, they called impeachment an unfortunate but necessary next step to rein in a reckless president.
“I’m sure the Republicans, for political reasons, will oppose these, but from a constitutional perspective I think the clarity of these two articles is really simple and important,” DeGette said a few hours later. “I think there maybe could have been other articles that would have been more debatable, in terms of their foundation and their evidence.”
On Fox News Monday night, Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican, said the White House’s refusal to participate in the impeachment inquiry — and its order barring executive branch employees from testifying before Congress — was not obstruction of Congress.
“It’s not obstruction at all,” said the conservative congressman and chair of the Colorado Republican Party. “In fact, what’s so interesting to me about this is, on the one hand, Chairman (Adam) Schiff and Chairman (Jerry) Nadler have refused to turn information over and have claimed a privilege. When President Trump claims a privilege, all of a sudden that’s obstruction.”
Schiff and Nadler, both Democrats, head up the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, respectively. The latter committee, which Buck is a member of, will vote later this week on whether to send articles of impeachment to the full House of Representatives, according to Nadler.
“The evidence is clear that the president of the United States abused his power by soliciting foreign interference in our elections and engaging in a wholesale obstruction of Congress during this inquiry,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat and Judiciary Committee member, in a statement Tuesday.
The unveiling of impeachment articles followed a combative nine-hour Judiciary hearing Monday in which Democratic and Republican staffers for the Intelligence Committee presented findings from their respective investigations. A Democratic report found Trump has committed impeachable offenses; a Republican report found he has not.
“I plan to vote NO on impeachment,” tweeted Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, on Tuesday. “I’ve reviewed the facts and this is just more of the same baseless allegations by the left, which has been pushing for impeachment since November 9, 2016. Time for the sham to end!”
If approved by the House, impeachment will head to the Senate for a trial early next year. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Denver Democrat, said Tuesday that he will likely vote to convict the president.
“We have to follow due process and the rule of law, but if the evidence of the president’s wrongdoing and abuse of power continues to remain consistent with what we’ve seen, it’s likely I will vote to impeach,” said Bennet, who is running for president.
Trump responded to Tuesday’s news with a two-word tweet: “WITCH HUNT!” In followup tweets, he criticized Schiff and Nadler as corrupt and disingenuous, respectively. The president, who is accused of withholding military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the Eastern European ally to investigate the family of Joe Biden, a potential 2020 rival, said there was no pressure.
“House Democrats proved this morning that they have no respect for the voters they represent and are willing to override the will of the American people for their own political gain,” said Kyle Kohli, spokesman for the Colorado Republican Party.
