California Rep. Adam Schiff urged Republicans to consider the evidence for impeachment against President Trump.
Schiff claimed that Trump doesn’t represent “what the Republican Party used to stand for” during a Sunday interview on State of the Union. He called on Republican members to put the country above loyalty to the party and the president because he believes the evidence for impeachment is solid.
“The evidence is already overwhelming. The remarkable thing about this — and we’ve done with this literally no documentary production from the administration — is the facts are really not contested. It's really not contested what the president did,” Schiff said.
He added, “What is open to question is whether members of Congress are going to do their duty and whether there will be anyone like Howard Baker, anyone on the Republican side that is willing to put their country, their constitution above the party or the person of the president because I don’t think he really represents at least what the Republican Party used to stand for.”
Schiff went on to call future refusals from Republicans to impeach Trump a "failure" to put party over country.
"I think what it will mean, if we decide that we cannot accept this kind of conduct in the president of the United States, and the Republicans decide that because of the president’s party or because they’re afraid of a primary for whatever reason they cannot vote to support impeachment, I think it will mean a failure by the GOP to put the country above their party, and it will have very long-term consequences if that is where we end up," he said.
"And if not today, I think Republican members in the future to their children and their grandchildren will have to explain why they did nothing in the face of this deeply unethical man who did such damage to the country," he continued."
The Republican Party has a strong opposition to impeachment, despite Schiff’s claims that Trump does not represent the party. Only 12% of Republicans support the impeachment investigation continuing. Additionally, impeachment support from independents has dropped 10% since it was first announced by Democrats.
