October 19, 2019

Yesterday Rooney said he'd consider voting to impeach Trump. Today he announced his retirement. Why am I not surprised at all?

Source: Washington Post

A day after Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.) became the first House Republican to say he would consider voting to impeach President Trump, he announced his retirement.

The two-term congressman from a reliably conservative district announced on Fox News on Saturday that he has decided not to run for reelection. His spokesman subsequently confirmed the decision.

Rooney told reporters on Friday when asked about the political consequences of potentially impeaching Trump that “I didn’t take this job to keep it. . . . I took this job to do the right thing at all times.”

Asked if he was worried about Trump’s wrath, Rooney said he wasn’t.

“What’s he going to do to me? I mean, he can say bad things, but it’s just what it is,” Rooney said. “There’s a lot of people around who are seriously concerned about being criticized by the president. Seriously. I just want to call them as I see it. I want to get the facts and do the right thing because I’ll be looking at my children a lot longer than I’m looking to anybody in this building.”

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