In impeachment vote, how Republicans got to zero by Byron York
After rushed and intense proceedings into the Ukraine affair, the House has voted to impeach President Trump. The vote was 230 to 197 for the first article of impeachment charging the president with abuse of power and 229 to 198 for the second article charging him with obstruction of Congress.
For Republicans, the important numbers were zero and zero. Not a single Republican lawmaker voted for either article of impeachment.
And indeed there were none.
By Byron York
The Republican stance didn’t just happen. Scalise has been working for weeks to keep House Republicans up to speed on the rapidly changing issues and positions in the Democratic impeachment drive. It was essential to keeping GOP lawmakers together.
Remember that in the early days, most members of the House were in the dark about what was happening in the proceedings. Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff held depositions in secret, in a secure room in the Capitol, and only members of the Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees were allowed to attend. Together, that is only 47 Republicans out of 197 GOP members of the House. A total of 150 Republicans had no access to anything.