A Republican congressman argued that lawmakers can vote against impeaching President Trump and still not endorse his conduct.
Rep. Will Hurd is one of several Texas lawmakers not running for reelection in 2020 and at times has been critical of Trump’s behavior. Still, he said in November the impeachment hearings had not provided enough evidence proving Trump “committed bribery or extortion.”
“Are you not worried at all that your vote will essentially be seen as giving a green light for every president in the future to use their power to ask foreign leaders, pressure foreign leaders, to investigate political rivals?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Hurd on Sunday.
“No, I don’t believe that’s what the message that’s being sent. You can vote against impeachment and still disagree with some of the policies or some of the behavior. As you said in the lead-up, this is such a monumental vote. Using this process of impeachment is one of the most serious things the House of Representatives can do … My fear is that you weaponize impeachment for political gains in the future,” Hurd said.
Hurd said he would have liked to hear testimony from Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose efforts to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election at the same time the White House was holding up military aid to the country helped set off the impeachment investigation.
The congressman said impeachment should be a bipartisan process.
“The only thing bipartisan about this process is the opposition,” he said, noting two House Democrats are against it.
