NILES, Ohio — Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio, will support the articles of impeachment filed against President Trump on Monday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over Trump’s involvement in the Capitol riot. If a majority of the House votes for it, Trump would be the first president ever impeached on two different occasions.
“There has to be consequences for the president’s actions,” Ryan said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “You cannot stir up a riot and send in a bunch of domestic terrorists and send them to the Capitol, and they’d get away with it. And I just think that he needs to be held responsible for his actions.”
Ryan said he would prefer to see Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment with a majority of the Cabinet. Republican lawmakers blocked an attempt to enact a resolution that would have called on Pence to do that, though it’s possible Pence could still do so.
“Ultimately, the 25th Amendment would be in the absolute cleanest and probably the most appropriate way to do it. I would prefer it was done that way in all honesty, but given that there’s a lot of Republicans who don’t have the courage to take Trump on, we’ve got to send a signal that this is not OK,” he said. Part of the 25th Amendment outlines the procedure for removing a president who is deemed unfit — if Pence does not invoke it, the impeachment resolution drafted by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland becomes the first step to remove Trump from office. The House will vote on impeachment on Wednesday.
Ryan, who ran in the Democratic presidential primaries last year, has served Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Summit, and Trumbull counties, known colloquially as “The Valley,” since he was first sworn in in January 2003. It was not uncommon in both 2016 and 2020 to see homes in “The Valley” have both Trump and Ryan signs in their yards — Ryan comfortably won his seat by 8 percentage points in 2020 but did narrowly lose his home county of Trumbull for the first time in his career.
Ryan, who is deeply rooted to his district and easily accessible to his constituents, said he received several messages from friends and voters alike who voted for Trump but were horrified by scenes and deaths that emerged last Wednesday as the protesters stormed the Capitol. “They’ve said this was a bridge too far, ‘we don’t support violence,’ that kind of thing. Got a number of texts from people who are like, ‘I voted for this guy, and he’s got to get impeached.’”
Ryan said it is critically important that the impeachment is done now. “You need to act swiftly. Justice, I think, needs to be as swift as possible. And also really to just send the signal of how unacceptable it is and to give Republicans an opportunity to do the right thing or not do the right thing. Because I just think that the American people need to know where they stand on this issue,” he said.
Ryan said he is pretty confident we’ll see Republican lawmakers vote for the impeachment as well. “I think there will be several that will do the right thing, who don’t want to be seen as supportive of what happens,” he said. “And they may pay a political price for that but are good people who know that doing the right thing is more important than any political price.”
Ryan previously voted for impeaching Trump in December 2019, when all but a few House Democrats impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
