Democrats and Republicans are officially at war after a partisan vote Thursday to “authorize” an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
But Republicans showed more solidarity than Democrats in the final tally, with two Democrats from Trump-friendly districts siding with the entire House GOP in voting no, according to Breitbart. The split vote nevertheless indicates that impeachment will play out as a partisan battle, with little agreement on process, fairness, or even basic facts.
GOP shows solidarity against impeachment
For weeks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pursued President Trump in a unilateral impeachment “inquiry,” carried out in closed-door sessions in the Capitol basement. Seemingly with a view to quiet Republican complaints about the process, Democrats finally voted to approve a resolution Thursday that, they claim, will open up the process.
But the resolution did nothing to dial down the political acrimony, as Republicans accused Democrats of attempting to legitimize a “Soviet-style” process, in the words of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA). The 232–196 vote, split along party lines, foretells deeper political divisions as Democrats look to move past private depositions and begin televised public hearings.
The vote also shows Republicans standing staunchly behind Trump, with not a single member of the caucus defecting to the Democrats. The two Democrats who voted with the GOP, Collin Peterson (MN) and Jeff Van Drew (NJ), seemed to vindicate Pelosi’s concerns about having Democrats in vulnerable districts go on the record, which kept her from holding a vote these past few weeks. (Even as Democrats prepared to take the vote Thursday, Pelosi and top Democrats had denied that they were actually voting for an “impeachment resolution,” according to the Washington Examiner.)
The Halloween vote marked the fourth time in American history that the House voted to begin impeachment proceedings against an American president — but the solemnity occasioned by such a moment was nowhere to be found Thursday, as Democrats feebly invoked the rhetoric of American patriotism to justify what Republicans have called a partisan “coup,” according to The Washington Post.
Indeed, there was plenty of partisan theater as Pelosi, standing next to a placard of an American flag, dramatically intoned that “our democracy is at stake.” Pelosi went on to claim that Democrats did not savor impeaching Trump — an absolutely laughable statement, as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pointed out: “For the last three years, they have predetermined the president’s guilt. They have never accepted the voters’ choice to make him president.”
Impeachment vote tees up all-out political war
The vote guarantees all-out political war in the weeks ahead, as both Democrats and Republicans circle the wagons. Indeed, rather than establish fair rules for a bipartisan inquiry, the resolution has only encouraged further political division as Republicans double down their attacks on the “illegitimate” process.
The resolution empowers Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who Republicans have routinely castigated over his handling of the inquiry, by limiting the ability of ranking Republicans on his Intelligence Committee to call witnesses and hampering President Trump’s rights to have counsel present during hearings as well, according to Fox News. As such, Republican senators like Lindsey Graham (SC) have denounced the vote as illegitimate and unfair.
Other Republicans blasted Pelosi for going through with what she had long dared not, saying it would be needlessly divisive, according to Fox. The only thing that seems to have changed is that Pelosi finds the Ukraine controversy a more compelling pretext to overturn the 2016 election than the Russia collusion hoax.
Now, what ought to be a last resort to protect democracy has been debased into a political “break glass in case of emergency” weapon by Pelosi and her fellow Democrats, who spent Thursday quoting Benjamin Franklin and attacking Republicans for refusing to defend “the rule of law.” Our Republic is now more divided than ever — all because the Democrats couldn’t accept an election.
But the upshot is, as Pelosi feared, not all Democrats are on board with it.
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