House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney criticized her Democratic House colleagues on Tuesday for shirking their constitutional responsibilities in their pursuit of impeaching President Donald Trump.
“I know our members come back energized for having spent the work period with constituents who themselves are very energized and recognize the stakes that we’re facing here,” Cheney told reporters during the Republican leadership’s weekly briefing. “And I would say that is a significant contrast to where the Democratic caucus is and the extent to which you have had particularly the Democratic members in vulnerable seats who have a huge disconnect between what their constituents want, why their voters sent them to Washington, and what is happening here with the Democratic caucus.”
“You’ve got members who went home — who are Democrats — who promised they were going to bring jobs back, who promised they were going to work across the aisle, who promised they were going to find common sense solutions to the problems their constituents are facing,” she continued. “And instead, what we have all seen is a terribly radical dangerous agenda coming out of the Democrats and one that we’re going to see continue, certainly.”
Cheney’s remarks came after the U.S. House of Representatives returned to Washington, D.C., after its August recess.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced earlier in the week that the Committee would take up a procedural resolution setting the groundwork for the formal advancement of impeachment hearings.
More than half of the Democratic caucus has come out in favor of opening an impeachment inquiry. House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), however, has been reluctant to embrace her caucus’ demands, even as the calls grow louder. Democrats largely gained the majority in the House after a wave of moderates were elected to purple districts during the 2018 midterm election cycle.
With the 2020 election on the horizon, Pelosi, as well as many of the Democratic Party’s moderates, fear that voters’ distaste for impeachment could put the majority back in the hands of Republicans.
“We are already seeing that now … in terms of the kinds of substance that they are focused on,” Cheney said. “Their efforts to kill fossil fuels, their efforts to fundamentally violate the Second Amendment of American citizens, and their absolute determination to go down the path of impeachment.”
“On impeachment what we’re seeing, and they’re speaking very publicly about this on the record to many of you, that their first effort at impeachment seems not to have worked,” she continued. “So, now they’re looking for another path to impeachment.”
Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, also slammed Democrats only hours earlier for continuing an impeachment push in order to score political points. Collins, who works alongside Nadler on the Committee, called the procedural move “pitiful.”
“They have been determined to impeach this president at all costs since he was elected regardless of the Constitution,” Cheney added. “They are fundamentally failing to abide by and live up to their constitutional responsibilities, turning impeachment into an absolutely political endeavor.”