2nd Trump Impeachment: How Texas House Delegation Voted

AUSTIN, TX — U.S. representatives from Texas voted to/voted against/split on impeaching Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. As expected, the Texas House delegation voted 231-197 in favor of making Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

The historic House vote took place a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a siege that resulted in five deaths — including the beating death of a Capitol police officer —multiple arrests and a widening FBI investigation. The impeachment comes a week before President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated in a city on high alert amid ongoing threats of violence.

Among the Texas delegation, the tally fell along party lines, with Democrats voting for and Republicans voting against the measure. Impassioned voices, both for and against impeachment, arose during protracted debate on the matter.

Read article of impeachment against Donald Trump

District 20 Rep. Joaquin Castro reminded colleagues of the violent siege as a mob of pro-Trump supporters — energized by a Trump speech rallying them to march onto the Capitol — breached the Capitol as lawmakers certified the presidential election. Members of Congress had to be evacuated to be secreted to a safe, undisclosed location as the mob lay siege on the Capitol building.

“Let me ask you a question,” Castro said in hushed tones that differentiated from decibel levels of most of his colleagues approaching the lectern. “What do you think they would have done if they had gotten in? What do you think they would have done to you and who do you think sent them here?"

Castro — whose district includes just over half of his native San Antonio, Texas, and some of its nearby suburbs — called Trump "The most dangerous man to ever occupy the Oval Office,” before asking his colleagues: “If inciting a deadly insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached then what is?"

Conversely, Congressman Roger Williams, a Republican from the 25th district, was among GOP members decrying the rushed nature of the second impeachment. He and other conservatives painted the move as a strictly politically motivated one that threatened to divide the nation further.

“Today’s rushed vote on impeachment will only further divide the American people," Williams said in a prepared statement following the vote. "The assault on the Capitol last week was an act of domestic terrorism — an affront to democracy by those who preferred to engage in chaos and violence, rather than civil discourse."

Williams — whose sprawling district stretches from Tarrant County in the north to Hays County in the south and encompasses much of the Texas Hill Country and Austin — suggested Democrats had politicized the bloody siege by pro-Trump forces in the government hub in nation's capital: "As our nation begins a tough healing process in the days ahead, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats must reject the impulse to politicize the heinous tragedy that occurred last week and refocus our efforts on delivering results for the American people."

Fellow Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales of the 23rd district echoed similar sentiments, calling the move to impeach as a partisan exercise — even as 10 members of the GOP joined Democrats in the historic vote: "I rejected [U.S. House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi's Nancy Pelosi's latest attempt to impeach the president," he wrote on Twitter. "It's time to bring this country together."

Gonzales's district stretches across the southwestern portion of Texas.

Of the 36 Texas congressional delegation members, Republican U.S. Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Houston and Kay Granger of Fort Worth did not vote, the latter reporting last week she had tested positive for coronavirus.

Joining Democrats in the overall House tally were ten Republicans who crossed party lines in voting to impeach: Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming; Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio; Rep. Jamie Herrera-Beutler of Washington; Rep. John Katko of New York; Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan; Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington; Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina; Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan; and Rep. David Valadao of California.

What's next: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will not allow the Senate to vote to convict Trump — which would have been an extraordinary turn by a Republican leader who has defended and protected Trump during the four years of his tumultuous presidency.

• If an impeachment trial is allowed in the Senate, it will be after Biden is inaugurated, McConnell said Wednesday. McConnell has reportedly said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses, and that moving forward with a vote would make it easier for Republicans to purge Trumpism from their party, but he won’t reconvene the Senate ahead of Biden’s inauguration. His staff said McConnell will defer to New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, who will become the new majority leader, to manage the process.

• Biden has suggested the U.S. Senate could “bifurcate” — that is spending half of the day confirming his Cabinet nominees and the other half on impeachment matters.

• Wyoming Rep. Cheney, the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, is among more than two dozen Republicans who signaled they would break from their party and vote to impeach Trump. "There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

Trial In The Senate: Two-thirds of the chamber would have to vote to convict Trump. The Senate exonerated Trump last year on charges of abuse of power and contempt of Congress after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the charge against Trump this time is more clear-cut.

Under the Constitution, the Senate could prevent him from holding federal office again and strip him of other perks afforded to former presidents.

As lawmakers debated the need for and grave potential consequence of impeaching Trump for a second time, the FBI warned of armed protests in the days ahead of Biden’s inauguration.

Related story: Armed Pro-Trump Protesters Gather Outside Texas Capitol In Austin

Statehouses in all 50 states have been targeted for protests. The agency is also monitoring chatter on an encrypted messaging platform about plans by Trump extremists to form perimeters around the Capitol, the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court building as Biden takes the oath of office.

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