Seven House Republicans wrote a letter to President-elect Joe Biden asking him to formally request that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) halt the push from members of the House to impeach President Donald Trump after Wednesday’s violent unrest at the Capitol building.
The Republican lawmakers — Ken Buck, Tom McClintock, Thomas Massie, Chip Roy, Kelly Armstong, Nancy Mace and Mike Gallagher, all of whom were in favor of certifying the electoral college votes on January 6 — argued that the impeachment option in the Constitution was never intended to be used absent “adequate investigation and congressional hearings.”
Pelosi said Friday that the House was prepared to pursue impeachment if Trump didn’t resign from office, reported The New York Times.
The seven House Republicans, however, argued in their letter to Biden that, under the present circumstances, pursuing impeachment would simply be too rushed. “This impeachment would undermine your priority of unifying Americans, and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and the economic fallout,” they wrote.
“We respectfully urge you to encourage Speaker Pelosi to set aside this partisan effort immediately,” wrote the Republican members of Congress.
In the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, I am asking that @JoeBiden formally request that Speaker Pelosi discontinue her efforts to impeach President Trump a second time. pic.twitter.com/BpCouEPxiW
— Congressman Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) January 9, 2021
According to ABC News, House Democrats were circulating a draft article of impeachment against the president for “incitement of insurrection.” Congressman Ted Lieu (T-CA) announced Saturday afternoon that 180 lawmakers were co-sponsoring the Article of Impeachment, which he and others planned to introduce on Monday.
UPDATE to the update: We’ve just hit 180 cosponsors of the Article of Impeachment drafted by Rep @davidcicilline, @RepRaskin, me and @HouseJudiciary staff.
We will introduce the Article of Impeachment this Monday during the House’s pro forma session. https://t.co/qm7LmXhOgK
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 9, 2021
Biden declined to answer Friday whether he believed in pursuing impeachment against Trump, explaining that if he were asked by a Democratic member of Congress about the topic, he’d reply: “That’s a decision for the Congress to make. I’m focused on my job.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called on Biden to put a stop to the impeachment effort building in the House on Friday evening. “I’m calling on President-elect Biden to pick up the phone and call Nancy Pelosi and the ‘Squad’ to end the second impeachment.”
“President Trump gave a statement last night that was helpful, it hit the mark, he wants to move on to a peaceful transfer of power, he wants this to end,” Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I’ve been with him most of the day, he’s going to focus on his agenda, his successes for the American people in the next few days.”