U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday the House would officially begin an impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s activities concerning aid to Ukraine. A whistleblower complaint has surfaced. The contention is the President was withholding the aid to leverage an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
The Administration, at first, was not willing to turn over the complaint to Congress. Trump has said he would turn over the transcript of his phone call with the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Pelosi’s announcement only makes impeachment investigations official. It does not commit Congress to impeachment proceedings.
Below you’ll find the reactions from members of Oklahoma’s Congressional Delegation.
Congresswoman Kendra Horn:
When I was sworn into office, I took a sacred oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I take that responsibility very seriously.
It is my job as a member of Congress to ensure our democracy stays strong. That means pursuing the truth and protecting ourselves from foreign adversaries. Our national security should never be partisan.
It is time we find a bipartisan path to bring people together and get to the truth in an honest and methodical manner. To do that, we need all of the facts. This should be a detailed and responsible investigation and not one conducted in a media circus. Americans are tired of finger pointing. We should do the job we were sent here to do.
I believe the testimony from the Director of National Intelligence on Thursday is essential to help us learn what happened and when. The rule of law also requires the administration to release the whistleblower report. Our nation has laws to protect whistleblowers and to protect the security of our elections, both of which are fundamental to our democracy.
In the meantime, I will continue to focus on key challenges facing Oklahomans every day like tackling rising health care costs and improving our education system.
Congressman Tom Cole:
Speaker Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are doing an enormous disservice to the country by recklessly pursuing a partisan impeachment inquiry that puts the priorities of their Caucus ahead of the needs of the American people. Whether right or wrong, it’s clear that House Democrats have already decided what they want to believe. This is an alarming disservice to the American people, who rely on their lawmakers to seek the truth – not politically motivated smear campaigns.
As an elected body of members entrusted with defending the Constitution, the People’s House should be working to actually improve the lives of the American people. Unfortunately, Democrats are set on condemning the president at every turn and in the process damaging the House as an institution.
Congressman Markwayne Mullin (via Facebook post):
Pelosi Democrats have been dead set on resisting President Trump since the day he was elected. They have wasted time and taxpayer dollars on investigation after investigation and now they’re taking it a step further with a baseless impeachment investigation. Will they ever stop this witch hunt? This is nothing more than a distraction from their failed socialist agenda. The American people deserve better than this ridiculous charade.
Congressman Kevin Hern:
The left has proven that they can and will spin anything into an impeachment frenzy. Their MO is to call for impeachment first and sort through the facts later. They wasted two years and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars investigating the President’s ties to Russia during the campaign, promising it would lead to incrimination and impeachment, but found nothing. President Trump has been a successful and effective President, our booming economy is proof that his policies work. But the Democrats will do anything to halt his progress. They’ve wasted their first nine months in the majority – they have no legislative accomplishments to speak of!
Instead of showing leadership for the American people, they cannot take their focus away from impeachment and halting President Trump’s success. Today’s announcement is just another ring in their impeachment circus, further proving that their caucus is dysfunctional, chaotic, and blind to the desires of the American people.
If Kendra Horn votes for impeachment, she might as well save herself the trouble of filing for re-election.