SC’s Democrats in Congress are not aligned on Trump impeachment
As Democrats in the House of Representatives gear up to shape articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, one Democratic congressman from South Carolina is all in while another is still on the fence.
U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, who represents the 1st Congressional District, formerly a GOP stronghold, is still withholding judgment on the president’s alleged actions, Cunningham spokesperson Rebecca Drago told The State on Friday.
“Joe is closely following the proceedings, and the testimony he’s seen from constitutional scholars and President Trump’s own appointees paints an incredibly concerning picture of the President’s abuse of power,” Drago said. “He will continue to withhold judgment until the articles have been drafted and he’s had the time to thoroughly examine the articles and all supporting evidence.”
In an interview on CNN Friday morning, fellow South Carolina Democrat and House Majority Whip U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn said he would not push, or “whip,” House members into voting one way or another on impeachment, including Cunningham.
Though Cunningham and Clyburn share six counties between their congressional districts — Jasper, Beaufort, Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley and Colleton — the political makeup of those districts are very different, Clyburn said.
“He’s probably talking to his constituents. He knows where they would like to see him stand on this question, and I suspect that’s the way he would vote,” Clyburn said. “I’m not going to urge him to vote the way I’m going to vote.”
Clyburn plans to vote in favor of impeachment. ”I think I’ve heard enough,” the Columbia Democrat said on CNN.
Cunningham’s wait-and-see approach to weighing in on the impeachment question is a reflection of the fine line he must walk representing a conservative district. The Democrat is a top target of the Republican Party, which wants to win back the seat the GOP held for nearly four decades.
Cunningham has pledged to represent his constituents over toeing the party line and has managed to stay relatively neutral as his fellow Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry and held hearings to examine whether Trump withheld aid from Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
For example, he voted in October to make the impeachment inquiry public, but expressed that his vote was on the side of transparency, not on whether he thought the president should be impeached.
Still, the Republican National Committee and other conservative groups have launched ad campaign after ad campaign attacking Cunningham, attempting to tie him to the impeachment efforts.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 10:46 AM.
