SC congressmen vote along party lines as US House impeaches President Trump
Two of South Carolina’s seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump, making history alongside the president who became just the third United States president ever to be impeached.
The votes on two articles of impeachment were, predictably, along partisan lines. South Carolina’s Democratic U.S. Reps. Jim Clyburn, of Columbia, and Joe Cunningham, of Charleston, voted in favor of impeachment.
In protest, the state’s five Republican congressmen voted against impeachment.
“We’re not debating the impeachment of an American president today,” U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens, said during a fiery speech in the hours before Wednesday evening’s voting. “Your minds are already made up.”
Duncan was one of a few South Carolina congressmen who got the opportunity have their voices recorded into history ahead of the votes.
U.S. Reps. Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, spoke early in the debate.
The articles of impeachment drawn up by the House Democrats in early December accuse Trump of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. Democrats pushing impeachment say Trump withheld aid from the Ukrainian government in order to pressure the country’s president into investigating former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Joe Biden is running for the Democratic nomination for president. Hunter Biden had business ties to a Ukrainian gas company while Biden was vice president.
Duncan said many Democrats had voiced support for impeachment before the details about a phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president came to light. Duncan also claimed that the allegations against Trump are mostly based on hearsay.
“You can’t even get a speeding ticket in this country based on hearsay,” Duncan said.
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican who represents parts of Richland and Lexington counties, got a minute to speak on the floor in the afternoon.
Wilson called impeachment a “hoax,” and criticized Democrats, claiming they were misleading the American public.
“It’s insulting,” Wilson said.
Ultimately, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on both articles of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. South Carolina’s delegation voted down party lines on the both articles.
The votes were 230 to 197 to impeach Trump for abuse of power, and 229 to 198 to impeach on obstruction of Congress.
Wednesday morning, Clyburn, majority whip in the House, was the first Palmetto State representative to speak on the floor. Before the hours-long debate began, Clyburn delivered an impassioned speech admonishing Trump and imploring his colleagues to vote in favor of the measure.
“Today, we have a president who seems to believe he is a king or above the law,” Clyburn said to the assembled members of the House during the history-making hearing. “(Thomas) Paine warned us that so an unlimited power can belong only to God almighty.”
Clyburn quoted a line written by Paine, one of the fathers of the American Revolution, which cheered steadfast soldiers of the revolution and admonished the “summer soldier and sunshine patriot.”
“We must not be sunshine patriots today in our efforts to protect the Constitution upon which this great Republic stands,” Clyburn said.
South Carolina Republicans in the House protested in other ways.
Duncan, like the rest of the Republican members of South Carolina’s delegation, vowed to vote against the articles of impeachment, posting a photo of a bright red “no” voting card on Twitter at 2:30 Wednesday.
U.S. Rep. William Timmons, R-Greenville, also posted a photo of his “no” vote card on social media.
Timmons did not get a chance to speak on the floor, but tweeted early Wednesday that Democrats were trying to “reverse the results of the 2016 election.”
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, said in a tweet that, “Democrats have chosen to make this day one of the darkest in American politics. It’s ridiculous. ”
“This has never been about some benign phone call. Instead, it’s a petulant attempt to damage a President who stands opposed to their far-left dreams for this country,” Norman tweeted.
GOP U.S. Reps. Wilson, of Springdale, and Tom Rice, of Myrtle Beach, also voted against impeachment as expected.
A top target for Republicans, Democrat Cunningham, who faces a reelection battle to keep the congressional seat he wrested from the GOP in 2018, also did not speak during the impeachment debate.
The vote likely protects him from a primary challenge but also will provide fodder to his conservative opponents.
Earlier this month, the S.C. Republican Party commissioned a poll of voters of Cunningham’s district, asking voters whether they would be less likely to vote for the congressman again if he voted in favor of impeachment. More than half — or 57.2% — said yes.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include remarks from U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, who also took the floor during the impeachment debate.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 8:57 PM.
