Wyoming’s Liz Cheney was the only U-S House member from Nebraska, Wyoming, or South Dakota to vote for impeaching President Trump for “incitement of insurrection” over last week’s riot at the U-S Capitol.
Ten Republicans joined all 222 Democrats in the 232-197 vote, the most bipartisan impeachment vote in history and the first to impeach a president for a second time.
Cheney, daughter of former vice president and congressman Dick Cheney, was the only member of the GOP leadership to vote yes.
She’d issued a statement Tuesday saying “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Cheney said Mr Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing,” adding that he “could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.”
Nebraskans Don Bacon and Jeff Fortenberry issue statements blaming the President for the riot, but saying impeachment was the wrong move with just over a week left in his term.
Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and the 3rd District’s Adrian Smith both issued statements seeming to blame the President without specifically naming him, but they also said impeachment was the wrong choice.
The impeachment resolution now goes to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he won’t call an emergency session to vote.
That means a trial couldn’t begin until next Tuesday – the day before the inauguration. McConnell has said he has not ruled out voting himself for impeachment.