Herrera Beutler ‘choosing truth’, votes to impeach Trump
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump in a stunning final rebuke after four years spent locked in a fragile two-step of backing her party while keeping its polarizing leader at arm’s length.
Herrera Beutler was one of 10 House Republicans to cross party lines and vote to impeach Trump for inciting the right-wing mob that launched an assault on the U.S. Capitol last week. The House voted 232 to 197 to advance the charge to the Senate, which will make the determination as to whether the president should be convicted, removed from office and barred from running again.
In an address on the House floor, Herrera Beutler called on her colleagues to embrace the moral clarity that comes with accepting the truth.
“I rise today to stand against our enemy. And to clarify, our enemy isn’t the president, or the president-elect. Fear is our enemy. It tells us what we want to hear, it incites anger and violence and fire, but it also haunts us into silence and inaction. What are you afraid of?” she asked.
“My vote to impeach our sitting president is not a fear-based decision. I am not choosing a side, I’m choosing truth. It’s the only way to defeat fear,” Herrera Beutler concluded, to a smattering of applause on the House floor.
