On Sunday afternoon U.S. House Representatives Derek Kilmer, Suzan DelBene, Denny Heck, and Kim Schrier announced their support for an impeachment inquiry. A little bit later in the day Senator Patty Murray came to the same conclusion, leaving Sen. Maria Cantwell as the one remaining member of Washington’s Congressional Delegation who is currently opposed to impeachment.
In their press releases they offered a little snack mix of reasons that led to their decisions. Kilmer emphasized obstruction of justice and election interference cited in the Mueller report. Schrier emphasized the long flight between the Washingtons and the fact that “every effort to seek [information about obstruction of justice] has been slow-walked or obstructed.” Heck emphasized election interference and the threat to “the rule of law.” DelBene hit all the same notes. Murray said she agreed with her “fellow members in the Washington delegation.” Washington’s Republicans, of course, remain unconcerned.
In May, Rep. Pramila Jayapal became the first of Washington’s members of Congress to support impeachment proceedings, followed by Rep. Adam Smith in June. Rep. Rick Larsen announced his support for an inquiry two weeks ago, pointing to the President’s disregard for the idea of “citizenship” as his reason.
Spines seemed to strengthen following a Friday op-ed published in the Atlantic, wherein four members of the House Judiciary Committee said they will “move forward with the impeachment process” by using their “Article I powers to obtain the additional underlying evidence [that Mueller used in his report], as well as enforce subpoenas for key witness testimony, and broaden our investigations to include conflicts of interest and financial misconduct.” But in that same op-ed they also said they will “consider whether to bring articles of impeachment or other remedies under our Article I powers.” So the committee is “moving forward,” but they’re not drawing up articles of impeachment yet—in other words, the capital “I” impeachment process has yet to begin.
A couple fun things to note about all this:
• With the exception of Larsen’s citizenship concern and DelBene’s and Schrier’s tacit acknowledgement that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “self-impeachment” process hasn’t produced the results they thought it would (largely due to former Trump officials fighting subpoenas), all of the reasons given by these Democrats for supporting impeachment could have been given back in May or April. It seems like they’re pretending as if last week’s Mueller hearing went according to plan, and now they’re running with the narrative they wanted instead of the narrative Mueller gave them.
• Right now, less than half of the House Dems support impeachment. That might change soon. Rep. Kilmer chairs the New Democrats, a caucus of 100 fiscally conservative/socially liberal types. Schrier represents a swing district. These kinds of Democrats coming out for impeachment offer a pathway for other centrist members of Congress to fall in line. Kilmer hasn’t responded to my question about whether he’s encouraging that caucus to follow the leader here, but I’ll update if he does.
• Making this announcement the day they left for August recess suggests these members of Congress didn’t want to spend the next month getting yelled at by constituents at town halls. That means grassroots pressure to push for impeachment is working, at least to some degree.
In an email, Chris Petzold of Indivisible WA 8, one of the groups pushing for impeachment, said Schrier’s support of an impeachment inquiry has earned their support in 2020. “Many have feared the political consequences of taking this step, but I fear the consequences of not doing it and allowing Trump to devastate our democracy and our country,” she said.
“We are still waiting for Senator Cantwell to join Senator Murray in her public support of the impeachment inquiry,” Petzold added.
• Lol, Maria Cantwell. Her office didn’t reply to a request for comment. I’ll update if I hear back.
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