Tag: impeach

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GOP Rep. John Katko, who voted to question Trump, being recruited to run for NY governor

GOP Rep. John Katko, who voted to impeach Trump, being recruited to run for NY governor

Rep. John Katko, RN.Y., speaks during a press conference following a House Republican meeting in Washington on Wednesday, April 14, 2021.

Caroline Brehman | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

A Republican Congressman who voted for the charges against former President Donald Trump is being recruited to run for New York governor next year.

Lawmaker Rep. John Katko has not ruled out running, said these individuals, who refused to be named due to the private nature of the conversations.

The development comes when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, comes under fire over several scandals. Several women have accused him of sexual harassment, which he denies while his government is under investigation for handling Covid-19 death dates. Cuomo has turned down calls for resignation and was on track to run for a fourth term.

Katko, who has called for Cuomo’s resignation, is a prominent member of the House Republican Caucus. He is the senior member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and may be named chair if the GOP Republicans retake the house during the 2022 midterm elections.

But Katko could again run into stumbling blocks running for Congress: there is a potential for backlash within his own party for his impeachment decision, and he represents a swing district. Katko’s campaign raised nearly $ 340,000 in the first quarter and has more than $ 580,000 available through April, according to new records from the Bundestag Electoral Commission.

The race in his district, the 24th in New York, is slated to be a litter next year, according to analysts at Cook Political Report. The district, which includes Syracuse, is one of at least 17 House Republican races that are considered competitive. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won Katko’s district against former President Donald Trump by almost nine points.

Republicans won last year’s House of Representatives elections and are just a handful of seats away from becoming a majority.

Media representatives for both the Katko Convention Bureau and the 2022 re-election campaign did not return repeated requests for comments.

The recruitment surge for Katko shows that members of the GOP are looking for a more moderate candidate for the highest office in a traditionally democratic state. New York GOP MP Lee Zeldin has already announced his candidacy for governor. Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has said he could run on the Republican ticket.

Zeldin, Giuliani and others are due to speak for nationwide contenders at the New York Republican meeting in Albany on Monday, according to a person briefed on the matter. MEP Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who has not publicly ruled out running for governor in 2022, is also on the list of speakers. Katko is not expected to attend, this person added.

Katko is the chairman of the moderate republican government group. His vote shows that he’s not necessarily a hardliner either. While Katko pushed back certain parts of the Affordable Care Act, in 2015 he didn’t vote to repeal it entirely. Katko later voted against the Affordable Health Care Act, the Republican’s replacement for the ACA, which passed the House but not received it by the Senate.

Cuomo has since said that he wanted to run for a fourth term despite the exam.

The poll is mixed for Cuomo. A March poll by Morning Consult shows that 53% of New York voters approve of Cuomo. However, a Quinnipiac poll conducted last month found that over 60% of registered registered New York voters would prefer Cuomo to stop running in 2022.

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GOP senators who voted to question Trump going through warmth at residence

GOP senators who voted to impeach Trump facing heat at home

The seven Republican Senators who voted with all 50 Democrats to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection in the Capitol are now exposed to the heat of Conservatives in their home states.

Party leaders and local GOP officials, many of whom are trying to find favor with the broad swath of conservative voters still loyal to Trump, have condemned the seven lawmakers for engaging with the rest of the party.

The criticism illustrates the strong influence Trump continues to have nationally against Republicans despite his defeat in November and subsequent refusal to admit defeat.

Polls conducted after last month’s attack on Congress continue to show that Trump has a sky-high approval rating among Republicans and that roughly half of the GOP are primarily loyal to the ex-president himself rather than the party.

The Senate acquitted Trump on Saturday after an unprecedented second impeachment process with 57 to 43 votes.

While Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only GOP member to vote against Trump after his first trial, this time there were six more: Richard Burr from North Carolina, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine Lisa Murkowski from Alaska , Ben Sasse from Nebraska and Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania.

Some of the senators, including Cassidy, have already been reprimanded by official reprimands from their state party, while many of the others are criticized by local conservatives. Cassidy was censored by the Louisiana GOP a few hours after his vote.

The backlash against Sasse, which is also expected to face formal criticism, was directly mentioned by one of Trump’s Senate defenders.

“There seem to be some pretty clever lawyers in Nebraska, and I can’t believe the United States Senator doesn’t know,” Bruce Castor Jr. said during an at times confusing address. Castor said Sasse “is facing a whirlwind, even though he knows what the judiciary thinks in his state.”

Based on previous comments criticizing Trump, local GOP chapters in several Nebraska counties have passed resolutions calling for Sasse’s criticism, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. A meeting of the state GOP to officially reprimand the senator has been postponed because of the weather, the newspaper reported.

Burr, a senior Republican whose election to condemn Trump came as a surprise to most observers, also drew fire from home-state Conservatives.

“The Republicans of North Carolina sent Senator Burr to the United States Senate to uphold the Constitution and today’s vote to condemn a process he ruled unconstitutional is shocking and disappointing,” said Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, in a statement.

Burr is not seeking re-election for a fourth term in the Senate. Mark Walker, a Republican aspiring to succeed him in 2022, wrote in a post on Twitter shortly after the vote on Saturday: “Wrong vote, Sen. Burr,” and added a donation message.

Toomey could also face “possible setbacks at home”, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The newspaper reported that in response to Toomey’s vote, Lawrence Tabas, the state’s GOP chairman, said he shared “the disappointment of many of our grassroots leaders and volunteers.”

Overall, the backlash is unlikely to cause election damage in the short term. Six of the seven Republicans will not be re-elected next year in the 2022 cycle. Only Murkowski, who has served in the Senate since 2002, faces an upcoming re-election campaign.

Some have speculated that the impeachment vote in Alaska could give former Governor Sarah Palin an impetus to run in a primary. Palin herself has fueled rumors that she would be entering the race.

Each of the seven Republicans who voted to condemn Trump have defended their decision in statements and posts on social media. In a video posted online before the vote, Sasse reiterated his warnings about Republicans’ loyalty to Trump, saying “Politics is not about strange worship of a man.”

Toomey admitted in a thread on Posts on Twitter that Trump’s attorneys “made several precise observations” during their arguments. But he said, “As a result of President Trump’s actions, the transfer of power from the president was not peaceful for the first time in American history.”

“His betrayal of the constitution and his oath of office required conviction,” wrote Toomey, defending his decision.

Cassidy said in an interview on ABC News on Sunday that he “tried to hold President Trump accountable” and that Cassidy was “very confident that people will move to that position over time”.

“The Republican Party is more than just a person. The Republican Party is about ideas,” he said.

CNBC has reached out to each of the seven Republican lawmakers.

Criticism of the Senators reflects previous attacks on the House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment in the lower chamber. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was censored by Republicans in her state after her House colleagues unsuccessfully urged her to be removed from her leadership role.

Some Republicans who didn’t even vote for Trump’s impeachment have been criticized for not being respectful enough of the ex-president. For example, Senate Minority Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Voted in favor of the acquittal, but harshly criticized Trump’s January 6 rally speech, accusing him of being responsible for the day’s violence.

Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., sentenced McConnell on Sunday for the speech.

“I think Sen. McConnell’s speech obviously took a burden off his chest, but unfortunately he put a burden on the Republicans,” Graham told Fox News. “You will see this speech in campaigns in 2022.”

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Liz Cheney, John Katko will vote to question

Liz Cheney, John Katko will vote to impeach

Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, said Tuesday she would vote to indict President Donald Trump as at least four GOP lawmakers will accuse the president of her own party of high crimes and misdemeanors.

She is the senior Republican who called for the impeachment of the President Trump instigated with lies and incendiary rhetoric after the deadly uprising on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Rep. John Katko, RN.Y., previously said he would support the impeachment after the president stirred up a mob last week that attacked the Capitol while Congress was counting President-elect Joe Biden’s presidential victory. The representatives Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Fred Upton, R-Mich. And Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., Later joined Cheney and Katko. Five people died in the riot, including a Capitol policeman.

In a statement, Cheney said Trump “called this mob, gathered the mob and lit the flame of this attack.”

Liz Cheney, Chair of the Republican Conference of the House, speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 8, 2019.

Aaron P. Bernstein | Reuters

“All that followed was what he did. Without the president, none of this would have happened,” said the chairman of the Republican conference.

“The president could have acted immediately and forcefully to stop the violence. He did not. A president of the United States has never betrayed his office and his oath on the constitution more strongly.”

Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday evening that he would not remove Trump from office by invoking the 25th amendment.

“I do not believe that such an approach is in the best interests of our nation or in line with our constitution,” Pence wrote of the 25th amendment in a letter to Pelosi.

Pence made no explicit mention of the impeachment surge. However, he urged Congress to “avoid measures that further divide and inflame the passions of the moment” as “we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden as the next President of the United States”.

In the meantime, the House plans to vote on Wednesday whether Trump should be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. Democrats have said they have enough votes to indict the president a second time.

In a statement Tuesday evening, House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi named nine impeachment managers for the impending trial. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Will serve as lead manager. He is accompanied by Rep. David Cicilline, DR. I., Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D -Calif., Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic Delegate for the US Virgin Islands, Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., And Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.

Once the House indicts Trump, the Senate will decide if he will be convicted. The board may not have time to vote to remove him from office before Biden takes office a week from Wednesday.

Still, a Senate conviction would prevent Trump from becoming president again.

US President Donald Trump speaks after the swearing-in ceremony of James Mattis as Secretary of Defense on January 27, 2017 at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

Almond Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

House Republicans announced their stance when the New York Times reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Told staff he thought Trump had committed criminal acts. The newspaper didn’t say whether McConnell would vote for the president’s condemnation if the House sends impeachment proceedings to the Senate, or whether he would ask Republicans to vote the same way.

More Republicans could join Cheney, Katko and Kinzinger in support of the effort. No House Republicans voted in 2019 to indict Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

“Good for her to take her oath of office,” said House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., In response to Cheney’s support for the impeachment. “Would more Republicans keep their oath of office?”

Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, breaks up with the minority leader of the House, Kevin McCarthy. The California Republican has spoken out against the charges against Trump. He and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., Declined to count Biden’s certified election victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania following the attack on the Capitol.

Cheney is the daughter of former Vice President and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. He joined nine other living Pentagon leaders earlier this month in warning not to involve the military in any dispute over election results. The Washington Post came three days before the Capitol attack.

Trump previously said the Democrats’ urge to indict him was dangerous and could spark more violence. Some of his Republican allies have argued that the effort would hamper attempts to ease tensions in the country.

Impeachment supporters said Congress shouldn’t move on until they hold Trump responsible for his supporters’ attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

The impeachment article, titled “Inciting Insurrection,” which Democratic leaders appear to support, accuses Trump of guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors by encouraging an attack on an equal branch of government. It is said that the president fueled the uprising by lying to his supporters about the election results for two months and then encouraging them to fight the result just before the Capitol invaded.

Days before Trump leaves office, the House went through the traditional process of getting the impeachment to a quick vote across the Chamber. In a Tuesday report in support of the impeachment, officials on the House Judiciary Committee wrote that Trump “has repeatedly attempted to dismiss the election results” and “pursued a parallel course of conduct that predictably led to the impending lawless acts of his supporters.”

The report went on to say, “President Trump has committed a grave crime and misdemeanor against the nation by instigating a riot in the Capitol to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The facts show that he is unable to stay in office. ” a single day longer and justify the immediate impeachment of President Trump. “

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