New Mexico Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres Small says she now supports an impeachment inquiry of President Trump over his July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a Las Cruces Sun News op-ed Thursday, the freshman House lawmaker says she called for an investigation of the facts after the call transcript and whistleblower report was released.
“I believed our best hope of finding the truth is to review the facts in as unbiased a manner as possible,” wrote Torres Small, 34, who represents a district along the U.S. border with Mexico that in 2016 favored Trump over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton 50%-40%. Voter registration in the district favors Republicans by six percentage points.
The congresswoman’s move toward a House impeachment inquiry of Trump leaves seven of her Democratic colleagues still holding out — Anthony Brindisi of New York, Reps. Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey. Each represents a district won by Trump in 2016.
Torres Small writes she changed her mind on the matter when she says the president and his administration refused to cooperate with House committees investigating the Trump administration.
“The White House and the State Department stopped a key witness from testifying before Congress and the White House issued a letter refusing to cooperate at all with the investigation,” she said, referring to the administration’s move to prevent Gordon Sondland from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.
“Tuesday’s actions by the president and the administration left me with no other way to get the information the country deserves than to support an impeachment inquiry,” Torres Small said.
