Washington state representatives react to historic impeachment votes

The U.S. House of Representatives found itself split on party lines for a pair of historic impeachment votes Wednesday evening, with Washington state’s own representatives finding themselves similarly divided.

Sen. Patty Murray: Senate ‘must allow a fair trial’ for impeachment

All of the state’s Democratic representatives in the House voted in favor of both articles of impeachment against President Trump Wednesday. Conversely, all of the state’s House Republicans voted against impeachment.

That being so, reactions were varied between the two parties.

“When abuse your power as the president of the United States, you are betraying the country, you are betraying our national security, and you are betraying the votes of the people,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA 7th District), who’s been outspoken in support of impeachment for months now.

“This idea of America is in peril, brought about by this president who sought to cheat in an election,” agreed soon-to-be-retired Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA 10th District).

Those sentiments were also echoed by Washington’s 9th District representative, Adam Smith.

This president defied our checks and balances by ignoring congressional subpoenas and obstructing Congress. By pressuring a foreign government to investigate a political opponent, he blatantly abused the power of the presidency – I voted for both articles to hold him accountable.

— Rep. Adam Smith (@RepAdamSmith) December 19, 2019

On the other side of the aisle, Washington Republicans were adamant in their support of the President.

“The people’s House should be better than this,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA 4th District). “We should be better than this.”

How Washington reps voted on initial impeachment proceedings

“The president’s motives for his actions remain unproven,” Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA 3rd District) affirmed. “I will not vote to impeach based on hearsay testimony from secondhand sources – to do so diminishes impeachment to a mere political disagreement.”

Also voting “no” on both articles of impeachment was Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who decried the entire process in a statement issued before voting took place.

The Left doesn’t have the evidence OR the bipartisan support they said would be necessary to impeach @realDonaldTrump. This has been a desperate crusade and hyper-partisan sham from the start. I’ll be voting NO to impeach. https://t.co/l69VqiGraX

— CathyMcMorrisRodgers (@cathymcmorris) December 18, 2019

The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial, although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw a bit of uncertainty into the process Wednesday night by declining to say when, or even whether, she would send the charges to the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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