Swing State Dem Flips on Impeachment
Update: Lawrence issued a statement reversing her position again, saying she still supports impeachment but is “very concerned about Senate Republicans and the fact that they would find this behavior by the President unacceptable.”
Over the summer, Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence fully backed the move to impeach President Trump, but the Detroit-area Democrat said over the weekend that she has since changed her mind.
“I feel we should begin that process,” Lawrence told CNN on June 12. “If we impeach him, he is still sitting in the White House because the Senate must act.”
“Our democracy is bigger than Donald Trump, and we need to act,” added the congresswoman, who since 2015 has represented Michigan’s 14th District, which includes eastern Detroit.
Now, however, Lawrence said she sees things differently.
“You can censure, you don’t have to remove the president,” Lawrence said Sunday on No BS News Hour with Charlie LeDuff. “Sitting here, knowing how divided this country is, I don’t see the value of kicking him out of office, but I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable.”
“I want it on the record that the House of Representatives did their job and they told this president and any president coming behind him that this is unacceptable behavior and, under our Constitution, we will not allow it,” Lawrence told the podcast host.
“I’ll be g-damned,” the host said at one point in response to Lawrence’s remarks. “To hear you say, and you are a Democrat, and you are a liberal minded person; I know you don’t like Trump For the betterment of all of us, in an election year, it’s unwise to tear him from the chair. Is that how you think?”
“Yeah,” Lawrence responded.
Lawrence predicted a partisan vote in the House on impeachment and no conviction in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The House Intelligence Committee held a slate of public hearings on impeachment last week, and committee chairman Adam Schiff said Monday that the House Judiciary Committee will receive a report on the inquiry shortly after Thanksgiving.
The White House has denied accusations of a quid pro quo relating to the Trump administration’s delay of much-needed U.S. military aid to Ukraine over the same period the administration was pressuring Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into the Bidens.
Support for impeachment has not increased over the last month, according to two recent polls. Americans support impeaching Trump 50 to 43 percent according to CNN, while Morning Consult found voters support impeachment 48 to 43, a two-point drop in those against, but no increase in impeachment support.
