Newly-Elected GOP Rep. 'Strongly' Considering Impeachment Of Trump

Lee Moran
·Reporter, HuffPost

Newly-elected Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich) revealed Monday he was “strongly” considering voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in inciting last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol — as House Democrats announced they will vote to impeach Trump for the second time on Wednesday.

Meijer told CNN’s Erin Burnett the final straw was Trump’s refusal to condemn the violent rioters and his release of a video ― as the deadly scenes continued to unfurl in Washington ― in which the president told the mob “we love you, you’re special, come home.”

“No condemnation, no urge to bring things back,” Meijer said of Trump’s response. “To me that was an abject failure of leadership and something just broke then.”

Burnett asked Meijer, an Iraq War veteran who replaced retired Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash this month, what would make him cast a vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment. Democrats are bringing a single charge, incitement of insurrection, against the president.

Meijer explained how colleagues in Congress are concerned about “the process of impeachment,” “the impact and what that would mean for public reaction” and “the timing.”

But “I have not heard anyone arguing with the merits,” he said.

“To me, this is not the timing that is ideal,” Meijer continued. “I would prefer that we have a more fulsome investigation into what happened. Most of what I know about January 6 came either from personal experience or from Twitter. But at the end of the day, I think it is obvious that the president is no longer qualified to hold that office.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-lIll.) last week became the first congressional Republican to openly demand Trump’s removal from the White House via the 25th amendment. Vice President Mike Pence, however, reportedly opposes using the process. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) has also said he will consider the impeachment of Trump.

Watch Meijer’s comments here:

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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