Democratic congresswoman says it doesn’t matter if Trump quid pro quo didn’t happen

Florida Rep. Val Demings maintained that President Trump should be impeached even if the alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine never took place.

Demings, a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, was asked during an interview on This Week whether it was relevant to the impeachment proceedings that Trump’s request for an investigation into Joe Biden never came to fruition. Host Martha Raddatz noted that no investigation into the Bidens ever happened and Ukraine received its military aid anyway, but Demings maintained that it was irrelevant.

“You’re going to make me go back to my law enforcement experience. I had an opportunity in 27 years to deal with a lot of people who attempted to rob a bank, attempted to burglarize a house, attempted to carjack an individual,” Demings said. “We didn’t say, ‘Well, since you weren’t successful, we caught you, you weren’t successful so let’s just let you go and forget it.”

Raddatz questioned whether a lesser punishment, such as censure, would be a more appropriate punishment compared to impeachment.

Demings said, “We have an obligation given to us by the Constitution. I know it’s one that the American people want us to uphold. And we’re going to do the work before us. The fact that the president got caught in the act does not relieve him of being held accountable for the wrongdoing that he has engaged.”

None of the witnesses in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings confirmed a quid pro quo between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of military aid in return for an investigation into the Bidens over Hunter Biden’s high paying position on the board of Burisma, a natural gas firm.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland alleged a quid pro quo, but he asserted that Trump demanded an investigation in return for a White House visit, not military aid, despite the aid being temporarily withheld.

The House Intelligence Committee is expected to conclude its impeachment report this week and to turn it over to the House Judiciary Committee, who will decide whether or not to formally draw up the articles of impeachment in the House.