In a historic vote, the U.S. House has impeached a sitting president. As expected, Missouri’s delegation voted along party lines in making President Donald Trump the third U.S. president in history to get impeached by the lower chamber.
Some took their turn to speak on the measure to put Trump on trial in the Senate on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Comments became more contentious as the afternoon wore on.
In defending the case against the president, St. Louis Rep. Lacy Clay told his colleagues, “Our founders feared a lawless, amoral president would willfully put national security at risk for his own personal gain.”
Rep. Long listens to Rep. Smith on House floor December 18, 2019
Six of the eight House members from Missouri are Republicans.
East-central Missouri Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer says the whole process has been political: “Awhile ago the speaker spoke of the Pledge of the Allegiance,” says Luetkemeyer. “The last phrase of the pledge is justice for all. Justice is not something afforded to the president during the investigation. He was denied due process.”
Rep. Jason Smith of southern Missouri said, “I’m from the Show Me State, you have to show me. the only thing that you all have shown is that you are about to impeach a duly-elected president who has done nothing wrong.”
Southwestern Missouri Rep. Billy Long had 30 seconds to speak and said Trump has been a victim since he was sworn in. “He’s had his head held underwater for almost three years now, never coming up for a breath of air, just keep pushing him down. Lowest Black unemployment ever, lowest Hispanic unemployment ever, highest stock market ever, lowest unemployment in years.”
West-central Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler issued a statement before the vote: “Today’s vote is a gross abuse of power by Congress. This entire process to impeach President Trump is nothing more than a political calculation being made to undo the voice of nearly 63 million Americans. House Democrats fear they cannot beat him fairly at the ballot box, so they are intent in removing him at all costs.”
The case against Trump is likely to end in the Senate, Missouri’s senior Sen. Roy Blunt told Missourinet.
“If you can’t convince all of the Democrats in the House to be for the impeachment charges, it is highly unlikely that you’re going to convince any number of the Republicans in the Senate to be for that.”
Blunt says the charges are too weak and vague.
