In a tacit break with Trump, House Republicans will not formally lobby against his impeachment. [View all]
Source: New York Times
House Republican leaders have decided not to formally lobby members of the party against voting to impeach President Trump, making a tacit break with him as they scrambled to gauge support within their ranks for a vote on Wednesday to charge him with inciting violence against the country.
While Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, has said that he will “personally” oppose impeachment and sought to steer Republicans in a different direction, his decision not to officially lean on lawmakers to vote against the move constituted a subtle shift away from the president. In the past — including the last time Mr. Trump was impeached by the House — Mr. McCarthy and House leaders have lobbied Republicans intensely to stand behind Mr. Trump on nearly every issue, demanding the same degree of absolute loyalty that the president himself has required.
In the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has also conspicuously declined to defend Mr. Trump in any way or to speak out against the impeachment push, which — if it resulted in a Senate conviction — could bar the president from holding public office again. Two Senate Republicans had already called upon the president to resign, and advisers privately speculated that a dozen or so more could ultimately favor convicting the president at trial.
If all senators were voting, 17 Republicans would have to join Democrats to convict Mr. Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors; if they did so, only a majority would be required to disqualify him from being elected again. Mr. Trump has offered Republicans few reasons to rally around him. Speaking about the attack for the first time in days on Tuesday, he expressed no remorse and said his speech encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol and confront Congress immediately before the rampage had been “totally appropriate.” It was the specter of his impeachment, he said, that was “causing tremendous anger.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/12/us/impeachment-trump-25th-amendment/in-a-tacit-break-with-trump-house-republicans-will-not-formally-lobby-against-his-impeachment
Half-assed cowardly decision.
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