‘Absolutely shocked’: Horry GOP reacts to SC Rep. Rice’s vote to impeach Trump
Some Horry County Republican supporters are proud, many are furious.
All are shocked after U.S. Rep. Tom Rice voted to impeach President Donald Trump Wednesday — one of just 10 Republicans in the House to side with Democrats to impeach the president a second time. He’s the only Congress member from South Carolina to cross party lines.
The president’s second impeachment came just a week after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol building and just a week before he’s set to leave office.
Rice gave no indication before the vote that he would break with his party, even telling another news outlet that he planned to vote against impeachment. He had voted last week to block the counting of electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, two swing states that helped deliver victory to President-elect Joe Biden.
“Under the strict definition of the law, I don’t know if the President’s speech last Wednesday morning amounted to incitement of a riot, but any reasonable person could see the potential for violence,” Rice said in a statement Wednesday after his vote.
“Once the violence began, when the Capitol was under siege, when the Capitol Police were being beaten and killed, and when the Vice President and the Congress were being locked down, the President was watching and tweeted about the Vice President’s lack of courage,” he continued.
“For hours while the riot continued, the President communicated only on Twitter and offered only weak requests for restraint. ... I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”
Local GOP anger
Rice’s decision already has garnered significant backlash from GOP supporters in Horry County, where Trump received more than 66% of the vote last November. Rice, recently reelected to a fifth consecutive term, received 69% support.
Dreama Perdue, co-chair of the Horry County Republican Party, said Wednesday she has been fielding calls from his constituents who supported him and are truly upset, feeling like he didn’t take into consideration the people he represents.
“To say I am severely disappointed in Congressman Rice would be an understatement,” she said in a statement, adding that she believes it will now be very difficult for win reelection in two years.
Shannon Grady, incoming president of the Horry County Republican Women’s Caucus, called the move “political suicide” and said she lost all respect for Rice, who she previously supported. She said she will work to ensure he doesn’t serve another term, adding that she even supports recalling him.
“I don’t know if he had a lapse of judgment or slipped into a coma, ... but he has ruined his political career in Horry County; he is done,” she said.
Grady traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to witness Trump’s speech that preceded the rioters entering the Capitol — she said she didn’t participate — and she argued that the president’s words did not incite the violence.
Grady and Rice both noted their belief that Trump shouldn’t be removed so close to Biden’s inauguration, and that it will only serve to further divide the country.
Support of Rice
Not all local Republican supporters were united in their rebuke of Rice, though.
Ed Carey, co-chair of the Horry County GOP, didn’t share the same opinion as Perdue, his co-chair. He wrote in a statement that he is surprised, but “very pleased” to hear that Rice voted to impeach, especially after he supported rejecting electoral college votes last week.
“I am looking forward to government leaders with less vitriol management style and politicians that can find common ground,” he wrote.
Randal Wallace, a former longtime Myrtle Beach councilman and one of Rice’s opponents in the 2012 Republican primary, said he was “absolutely shocked” when he saw his congressman’s vote, but he’s proud of him for voting his conscience.
When Wallace ran in 2012, he said his primary platform was to bring back civility in public discourse. The “deterioration” has been going on long before Trump, he said, but it’s become worse, culminating in last week’s attack on the Capitol.
He added that he’s torn about whether voting to remove Trump with a week left in office is the right move, but he believes the actions of the past week ruined any chance Trump or any Republican has of winning the presidency in 2024 and beyond.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 7:42 PM with the headline "‘Absolutely shocked’: Horry GOP reacts to SC Rep. Rice’s vote to impeach Trump."
