18th District Congressman Darin LaHood voted today against House Resolution 660 which outlines the public hearing process for the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. The vote mostly along party lines was 232-196 with two Democrats joining Republicans voting no, clearing the way for the investigation to play out now in front of the public.
LaHood echoed the sentiments of his Republican colleagues that the party line vote was an attack on the president. “Impeachment is the nullification of an election. Only in extraordinary and extreme instances should it be applied, and as a former federal prosecutor, nothing in the facts or evidence presented so far supports the predicate for impeachment,” LaHood said in a press release after the vote today. LaHood also says that the inquiry rules don’t follow previous impeachment inquiries that occurred during the presidency of Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton.
According to LaHood’s press release, the current inquiry does not provide co-equal power to subpoena witnesses and materials so that the process would be fair and impartial. The inquiry, according to LaHood’s office, grants the minority the right to subpoena witnesses and materials only with the concurrence of the Chair and the requirement that such subpoenas be a quote, “deemed necessary to the investigation.”
Trump becomes the fourth president in the history of the country to face formal impeachment inquiries set forth by Congress.