Rep. Fred Upton has joined the censure club, with a county Republican Party in the GOP congressman’s Michigan House district voting to admonish him for impeaching President Donald Trump during his waning days in the White House.
Upton was among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 ransacking of the Capitol by his grassroots supporters. On Thursday, one day after President Biden was inaugurated and eight days after Trump was impeached a second time, Upton was censured by the Allegan County GOP.
The congressman, who has represented Southwest Michigan’s 6th District since 1987, was accused by activists in the Allegan Republican Party of ignoring constituents and supporting impeachment based on “incomplete evidence, little debate, and the absence of due process,” Michigan Live reported. The censure vote was unanimous.
In a statement defending his impeachment vote, Upton said, “Congress should not tolerate any effort to impede the peaceful transfer of power.” At the time of the storming of the Capitol, Congress was meeting to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory. Trump supporters, who agreed with claims made by the 45th president that the November election was stolen, aimed to derail that process.
Meanwhile, Upton is part of a growing list of prominent Republicans being censured by their own party for crossing Trump.
Republican sources said the local GOP in Calhoun County, Michigan, is poised to admonish Rep. Peter Meijer, who also voted to impeach Trump. And, over the weekend in Arizona, the state Republican Party admonished Gov. Doug Ducey for refusing to back Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election there. The Arizona GOP also censured former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, widow of Sen. John McCain, for endorsing Biden over Trump.
