‘The facts are uncontested.’ Sharice Davids officially backs Trump’s impeachment
Rep. Sharice Davids will vote to impeach President Donald Trump when the U.S. House takes up the historic question next week.
Davids, a freshman Kansas Democrat, announced her decision Tuesday evening after Democratic leaders unveiled two articles of impeachment against the president earlier in the day.
She said she came to the decision after months of deliberation.
One article in the House resolution charges Trump with abuse of power for his administration’s alleged efforts to coerce Ukraine into investigating potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden. The other charges him with obstruction of Congress for the White House’s defiance of congressional subpoenas.
“The evidence uncovered by the House impeachment inquiry is overwhelming. And the facts are uncontested,” Davids said in a statement.
“President Trump used the office of the Presidency to solicit foreign interference in our elections for his own personal, political benefit. He pressured Ukraine’s President to investigate his political rival, while withholding millions in taxpayer-funded aid to Ukraine. And since this information came to light, President Trump has defied congressional subpoenas, withholding critical documents and testimony.”
Trump will be the third president in history to face an impeachment vote in the House. Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton survived their Senate trials and finished out their terms. Majority Republicans in the U.S. Senate are already making clear that Trump will likely be acquitted. A two-thirds majority is needed to remove the president from office.
Davids’ 9-point victory in 2018 over a Trump-backed Republican incumbent in Kansas’ 3rd congressional district was largely seen as a repudiation of the president. But with a plurality of GOP voters in her suburban district, Davids has approached the issue of impeachment cautiously.
“It’s a difficult vote for her,” former Rep. Jim Slattery, a Kansas Democrat, said last week. “It’s a difficult vote for a lot of these new members that are in swing districts. Removing a president is a very serious undertaking and to do it under hyper-partisan conditions in an election year is a not a wise thing to do.”
Slattery, who served in the House from 1983 to 1995, said he fears impeachment will backfire on Democrats by enabling Senate Republicans to acquit the president and control the debate as early presidential states are selecting the Democratic nominee for 2020.
“I think it’s important for the Congress to assert its constitutional prerogatives and to assume its duty you might say, but that doesn’t mean you go on a fool’s errand. That doesn’t mean you go on a kamikaze mission, OK?” Slattery said.
Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, said many voters in Davids’ district, which went narrowly for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, are likely open to impeachment.
He said Davids and other Democrats who flipped GOP districts in 2018 can back impeachment without fear of backlash but there’s a risk in “seeming like that’s all they care about” because it’s likely not a top issue for voters.
“I think she’s approaching this in a very similar way to most Democrats in her position with suburban districts,” Miller said. “You can read between the lines that they feel pretty safe in supporting the process or criticizing Trump but none of them are leading the charge on this.”
In her statement, Davids emphasized the careful deliberation she took before arriving at her decision.
“This is not an action I take lightly. It is not what I came to Congress to do. But I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, and I take that responsibility very seriously,” Davids said.
She listed off a number of legislative priorities Congress is pursuing while it also pursues impeachment, including a trade deal with Canada and Mexico unveiled the same day.
“This is a sad moment for our country. But we must continue to make progress on the issues impacting Kansas’ Third District, and that is exactly what I intend to do.”
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat who represents an adjacent district, officially came out in favor of impeachment in September.
Cleaver said on Tuesday the evidence compiled by the House inquiry presents an unquestionable case that Trump attempted to coerce Ukraine into investigating a political rival.
“This is a grave perversion of presidential power and antithetical to America’s founding ideals based on fair elections free from foreign interference,” Cleaver said in a statement.
“Future generations will look back on this time as a defining moment in American democracy. I intend to be on the right side of history,” Cleaver added after recounting his initial reluctance to pursue impeachment earlier in the year.
Leslie Mark, Kansas team leader for progressive activist group Indivisible Kansas City, said Davids has navigated the issue as a person who recognizes she represents a mixed district.
“From here it’s OK to have a tempered steady-as-you-go approach,” said Mark, who lives in Mission Hills.
Mark added that while it’s important for many progressives to see Davids officially endorse impeachment they’re just as invested in how the rest of the delegation will vote on the issue.
She said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, an attorney, should be able to arrive at the same conclusion as fellow lawyer Davids.
Moran voted in favor of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 as a member of the House, as did the rest of the Kansas delegation at the time. Moran’s office did not comment Tuesday on the articles presented by House leaders against Trump.
Current GOP House members from Kansas and Missouri have been outspoken in their opposition to Trump’s impeachment. Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said Democrats have wanted to impeach Trump since he was elected.
“They know they can’t beat him, so they pathetically are impeaching him. Our President did nothing even remotely impeachable. This will be remembered as nothing more than a pathetic political stunt,” said Marshall, who is running for Kansas’ open Senate seat in 2020.
Rep. William Lacy Clay, a St. Louis Democrat and vocal supporter of impeachment, predicted that a handful of Democrats will vote against the articles of impeachment but that the caucus will still be able to easily pass the resolution.
“I think there’s an abundance of evidence that indicates the president abused his power and obstructed justice for personal gain,” Lacy Clay said.
Lacy Clay’s father, former Rep. Bill Clay, was one of five Missouri House members to vote against Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, at the time a member of the House, was one of four Missouri representatives who voted to impeach Clinton.
All four senators from the two states voted to convict Clinton when the matter moved to the Senate, including Sen. Pat Roberts, the retiring Kansas Republican who could vote to acquit Trump during what will be his final full year in the Senate.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 4:57 PM.
