By Deroy Murdock | National Review
The House of Representatives voted 232-196 to make its impeachment proceedings against President Trump official and open rather than formal and closed. Evolving from circus to soap opera might be a marginal improvement. Regardless, Roll Call No. 604 was pure, raw, Democratic hyper-partisanship.
On Oct. 31, 231 “yeas” came from Democrats and one independent. The “nays” included two Democrats and 194 Republicans. Exactly 0 percent of the House members in President Trump’s party voted to initiate his impeachment.
This action completely lacked the bipartisanship of the votes to launch the impeachments of Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
In Roll Call No. 498, on Oct. 8, 1998, the House voted 258–176 to commence Clinton’s impeachment. Among those in favor, 227 were Republicans and 31 were Democrats. Those opposed were 175 Democrats and one independent. So, 15 percent of Democrats voted to start impeachment against Clinton.
“We cannot excuse that kind of misconduct because we happen to belong to the same party as the president or agree with him on issues or feel tragically that the removal of the president from office would be enormously painful for the United States of America,” said Rep. Paul McHale (D-Pa.). “Having deliberately provided false testimony under oath, the president, in my judgment, forfeited his right to office.”
