Five House Dems Announce They Will Risk Reelection To Support Impeachment

By Susie Madrak — December 17, 2019

This morning, Morning Joe looked at Democratic politicians who, unlike Senate Republicans, are actually choosing principle over politics. Imagine that!

"Overnight, Congressman Anthony Brandisi says he plans to vote to impeach Donald J. Trump after concluding that he abused the power of his office. Trump won Brindisi's congressional district by 15 percentage points. This comes after a group of five moderate Democrats who all flipped their districts from red to blue in 2018 announced yesterday that they plan to vote to impeach President Trump tomorrow," Mika Brzezinski said.

"Those Democrats include Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Congressman Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Congressman Ben McAdams of Utah, Congressman Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, and Congressman Andy Kim of New Jersey. Congresswoman Slotkin explained her decision to vote for impeachment during a town hall meeting in Rochester, Michigan, last night and the partisan divide over impeachment was on full display.

"About 450 people attended her town hall. Many of them supporting her decision to impeach, but there was also a handful of Trump supporters who chanted and booed throughout much of the meeting.

So I want people to think about where we will be if it becomes normal to ask foreign governments to intervene in our political process. What if that becomes normal? What if next time we have a Democratic president asking the Chinese government for a cyberattack, for something new, for some intrusion? For me, this is something that i cannot abide, that I cannot accept. I made this decision out of principle and out of a duty to protect and defend the Constitution. I feel that in my bones and i will stick to that regardless of what it does to me politically, because this is bigger than politics.

"I was in one of the most conservative districts and I led, you know, the coup to take Newt Gingrich out. A lot of people were unhappy. Some of the town hall meeting sounded like that, but an incredible thing happened, Willie. When you show up, even those people chanting against you respect you for showing up. It's the people that make the votes and then hide from their constituents. They don't survive. So that's a good move," Joe Scarborough said.

"I would make the same -- give the same suggestion to Republican senators that we've been talking about over and over again, if you're Cory Gardner or Susan Collins. If you make unpopular votes supporting the president of the united states, you run and hide, you don't talk to the press, you don't meet your people at town hall meetings, it's much more likely you're going to lose. You have to face your voters head-on and you have a much better chance of surviving politically. But how fascinating it is, Willie, that the New York Times had the article last night.

"We're talking about it this morning. There were people in Trump districts, Democrats in Trump districts that have decided to vote for impeachment. Certainly, many would say, profiles in courage. Others, I guess, Cynics might say it was a politically shortsighted move to make. But regardless, they're going to be in for the political fights of their life now as they move forward."

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