House lawmakers are likely to vote along partisan lines Thursday when the House takes up the first resolution aimed at impeaching President Trump.
Both Democrats and Republicans are confident most of their rank and file will remain unified with only a few defections on the resolution. Democrats can easily pass the measure with their own majority even if 18 party lawmakers vote “no,” which isn’t expected.
Democrats believe most in their caucus will vote in favor of a resolution that will “affirm” the House impeachment proceedings that began in late September and that outlines the “public-facing phase of the inquiry” beyond the closed-door meetings now taking place in the Capitol basement under the direction of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
Republicans are whipping their GOP rank and file to oppose the measure, which House Minority Whip Steve Scalise has dubbed a “continued Soviet-style impeachment inquiry.”
A top GOP aide told the Washington Examiner “there’s strong unity” in the conference.
“We feel good about the vote,” the aide said.
Trump’s conservative flank said they believe no GOP lawmaker will vote for the resolution, although several retiring moderates may be on the fence, including Rep. Francis Rooney.
“I’m hopeful and I think it’s going to happen,” said Rep. Jim Jordan. “That every single Republican will be voting against the resolution on Thursday.”
The House Rules Committee provided a preview of tomorrow’s partisan vote.
Committee lawmakers battled along party lines to advance the resolution to the floor, with Democrats rejecting a string of GOP amendments.
“I do not think the process we are setting forward is a fair one,” said Rep. Tom Cole, the top Republican on the rules panel. “It is not fair to the president of the United States, and it’s not fair to the people of the United States.”
Democrats scoffed at the complaints and questioned why Republicans are opposing a resolution that would finally transition the closed-door proceedings to the public hearings they have been demanding.
Republican leaders say the process has lacked fairness and transparency that the new resolution does nothing to address.
The White House counsel, for example, is not allowed to participate in defending Trump in the open hearings the Intelligence Committee plans to conduct.
“The resolution fails to provide the minority and the administration with the same due process rights which have been afforded in past presidential impeachments and is simply meant to authorize the production of a tainted document authored by Chairman Schiff,” Republican leaders told GOP lawmakers in talking points urging them to vote “no” on the resolution.
Democratic leaders have resisted describing the measures as an impeachment resolution and say the language outlines the process of holding public hearings and transferring evidence to the Judiciary Committee, which would draft articles of impeachment.
But Republicans aren’t buying the description.
“This is the House speaking on impeachment,” Rep. Michael Burgess said Wednesday at the rules committee vote to advance the measure to the floor.
Democrats are more likely than the GOP to see defections. That’s because a handful of Democratic lawmakers from swing districts do not back impeachment. At least one member, freshman Rep. Jeff Van Drew, said he will vote against the resolution.
Recent polls show most voters do not support impeaching the president.
A Suffolk University/USA Today poll found 36% of registered voters backed impeachment while another 22% said Congress should continue investigating Trump but not impeach him.
House Republicans received a signal Wednesday from the GOP-led Senate that it would reject impeachment articles the House sends over.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a floor speech, condemned the impeachment resolution as unfair to the president.
“It does not confer on President Trump the most basic rights of due process or, seemingly, alter Chairman Schiff’s unfair process in the House Intelligence Committee in any way whatsoever,” McConnell said. “Chairman Schiff can continue doing this behind closed doors without the president’s participation, so long as he holds at least one public hearing at some point.”
