Thursday, Congressman Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) released a statement saying that he plan “inquiry is not about high crimes and misdemeanors, but about politics.”
Congressman Palmer said that Democrats are trying to achieve in the political arena would they could not achieve at the ballot box.
“I plan to stand with the Constitution in the impeachment process against President Trump,” Rep. Palmer said. “This inquiry is not about high crimes and misdemeanors, but about politics. Earlier this year, Congressman Al Green said, “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.” That should tell the American people everything they need to know about this inquiry. The Democrats are attempting to achieve in the political arena what they have been unable to achieve at the ballot box. If this inquiry progresses to articles of impeachment, I will vote no, consistent with the Constitution.”
While Palmer is opposed to impeaching the President, many Democrats believe that the Whistleblower report is the smoking gun that they need to convince the American people to support impeachment.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapa (D-Washington) is the Co-Chairwoman of the powerful House Progressive Caucus. Jayapal told activists at rally in Washington D.C. that Trump’s behavior with Ukraine fits a “pattern” of illegal acts, but that this has taken it to a whole new level of corruption.
“The President of the United States abused the power of his office, and he abused that power to ask a foreign president to investigate and come up with information, dirt, that would hurt his political opponent and would interfere with the 2020 election,” said Jayapal. “And that is an absolute abuse of power. It is, in my mind, a high crime and misdemeanor.”
Jayapal sits on the House Judiciary Committee.
“Before they even read the whistleblower complaint or the call transcript, Socialist Democrats called for impeachment,” Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) said on Wednesday. “Well, I have read the ENTIRE transcript, and there is nothing in the phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky that warrants impeachment. Rather, President Trump’s request is a very straightforward effort to root out corrupt practices that may (or may not) reach all the way to America’s White House under President Obama and Vice President Biden. I would hope and encourage every President of the United States to root out and uncover corrupt practices in the United States, or by any American citizen anywhere, particularly when the allegations reach to the highest levels of America’s government— the White House!”
Brooks is a career attorney and former prosecutor.
The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the power to impeach the President for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ but does not specifically define what that is; which leaves that definition up to members of Congress. It is very possible for Congresswoman Jayapa to look at the same evidence as Brooks and both to come to different conclusions about whether the conversation with President Volodymyr Zerensky rises to the level of a “high crimes and misdemeanors” or not.
Even if the House were to impeach the President, the Senate may choose not to remove the President. Both President Andrew Johnson and William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton were impeached. Neither one of them were found guilty by the Senate. No President has ever actually been removed by the Congress, though Richard M. Nixon resigned rather than to face impeachment proceedings.
(Original reporting by Fox News, the Conservative Tribune, and the Hill contributed to this report.)
