A substantial majority of House Democrats crossed the aisle Wednesday to join Republicans in opposing an impeachment resolution introduced in response to President Trump’s attacks on four progressive freshman congresswoman.
The resolution, introduced by Representative Al Green (D., Texas), was defeated 332-95, with 137 Democrats voting with Republicans against the measure. Green pressed forward with the impeachment effort despite opposition from Democratic leadership, who counseled their caucus to table the resolution, temporarily killing it.
“It’s time for us to deal with his bigotry. This president has demonstrated that he’s willing to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, and we have seen what can happen to people when bigotry is allowed to have a free rein,” Green told reporters Wednesday. “We all ought to go on record. We all ought to let the world know where we stand when we have a bigot in the White House.”
President Trump celebrated the vote as he arrived in Greenville, N.C. Wednesday evening for a campaign rally.
“We’ve just received an overwhelming vote against impeachment and that’s the end of it,” the president told reporters. He followed up those comments with a tweet in which he called the impeachment effort “the most ridiculous and time consuming project” and said, “This should never be allowed to happen to another President of the United States again!”
Pelosi cast the episode as a distraction that would benefit the president politically in comments to reporters Wednesday.
“You have to give him credit: He’s a great distractor,” she said.
Curiously, Green’s impeachment resolution made no mention of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and instead focused solely on the recent attacks Trump has launched against Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
In her comments to reporters on Wednesday, Pelosi emphasized that her caucus will continue to investigate Trump for possible obstruction of justice and corruption, despite those charges not appearing in the resolution.
“We have six committees that are working on following the facts in terms of any abuse of power, obstruction of justice and the rest that the president may have engaged in,” she said. “That is the serious path that we are on.”