Washington and Idaho congressional delegations vote on party lines as Trump impeached

Lawmakers in the Inland Northwest played their parts Wednesday in the largely party-line proceedings that ended with the impeachment of President Donald Trump on two counts.

The two votes followed hours of entrenched partisan debate by members of the two political parties on whether the president abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress’ investigation into that conduct toward Ukraine.

Washington’s Republican delegation has been critical of the impeachment articles, arguing there isn’t sufficient evidence to impeach Trump and that impeachment is driven by political motives. Democrats in Washington countered that Trump’s actions left a key U.S. ally in the region uncertain of military aid in furtherance of the president’s own political gains.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in a statement at the end of October she hadn’t seen evidence of an impeachable offense in Trump’s conduct in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which Democrats argue was a de facto demand for the country to investigate political rival Joe Biden. She followed that statement with a vote against both impeachment articles Wednesday.

“Since the 2016 election, Democrats have refused to accept the results and are on a desperate crusade to impeach President Trump by any means necessary,” McMorris Rodgers said in her statement. “They don’t have the evidence, they don’t have the bipartisan support they said is necessary, and they haven’t conducted a fair process or followed House rules. Plain and simple, this hyper-partisan impeachment is a sham and I refuse to support it.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Sunnyside Republican, signaled in a floor speech Wednesday morning that he’d be voting against the articles of impeachment, accusing Democrats of “subversions, such as these, of our democratic republic.”

“The people’s house should be better than this,” Newhouse said. “We should be better than this.”

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who faces a 2020 rematch in southwest Washington from Democrat Carolyn Long, said late last week she would vote against both articles of impeachment brought forward by Democrats, one for abuse of power and the other for obstructing a congressional investigation. Herrera Beutler called the obstruction article “the least credible of the two” in a news release Friday announcing her intentions and said the abuse of power article was based on “hearsay testimony.”

“The Ukrainian president says he was not pressured, Ukraine did not announce or open an investigation, and the country received its aid,” Herrera Beutler said in the statement. “The president’s motives for his actions remain unproven.”

Rep. Russ Fulcher of Idaho, who has been critical of the Trump impeachment proceedings, remained largely silent during his time on the House floor Wednesday.

“In a day heavy in verbal debate, I choose to use my time to enumerate, in detail, every high crime and misdemeanor committed by the president of the United States. I will do so now,” Fulcher said, before remaining silent for an additional 20 seconds as his time expired.

All 195 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against both articles of impeachment, including McMorris Rodgers, Newhouse, Herrera Beutler, Fulcher and Rep. Mike Simpson, of Idaho.

Democrats representing Western Washington argued that the impeachment proceedings weren’t about who occupied the White House, but targeted a president they said had and continued to undermine America’s electoral politics.

“He solicited foreign influence before, he is doing it now and he will do it again,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Seattle Democrat, in a floor speech Wednesday.

Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat who won the seat in Washington’s 8th Congressional District vacated by Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in 2018 and who is a target of Trump’s regional re-election campaign, also gave a speech in favor of impeachment Wednesday during a marathon session of debate.

“History will judge this moment,” Schrier said. “Given the facts before us, impeachment is the only remedy.”

All of Washington’s Democratic delegation – which includes Jayapal and Schrier, as well as Reps. Suzan DelBene, Denny Heck, Derek Kilmer, Rick Larsen and Adam Smith – voted in favor of both articles of impeachment.

The votes Wednesday night set up a trial in the U.S. Senate, where a similar party-line contest is likely to emerge between Washington’s two Democrats, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Idaho’s Republicans, Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch.