December 13, 2019

Reschenthaler Votes Against Democrats’ Partisan Articles of Impeachment

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today Congressman Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14) voted against H.Res. 755, the Democrats' partisan articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Despite unanimous Republican opposition, the articles passed the committee by a party-line vote of 23 to 17. It is expected the House will consider H.Res. 755 on the floor next week.

"Judiciary Democrats realize they can't beat President Trump on the merits, so they caved to their radical base and rushed through baseless articles of impeachment in record time," said Reschenthaler. "Democrats have no evidence to support their charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. If this case had come before me when I was serving as a district judge, I would have dismissed it at the preliminary hearing for lack of merit."

After 14 hours of debate yesterday, Chairman Nadler abruptly postponed the final vote on the articles until 10 a.m. today. During the mark-up on Thursday, Reschenthaler offered an amendment to strike the obstruction of Congress charge given that the facts do not support Democrats' claims. When there is a disagreement between the executive and legislative branches, it is supposed to be resolved by the third branch, the courts. Democrats could have gone to the judicial branch to resolve their concerns, but because of a politically expedient deadline to send the articles to the Senate before Christmas, they have refused to take such actions.

In comparison, when the Republican-led House was investigating President Obama's Fast and Furious scandal, which led to the death of an American border patrol agent, they challenged Obama's assertion of executive privilege in the courts. Chairman Nadler and Judiciary Democrats voted against Reschenthaler's amendment, upholding their baseless allegation of obstruction by a vote of 23 to 17.

"Since assuming the majority, House Democrats have done nothing but waste taxpayer time and dollars on their attempts to undo the will of the American people," said Reschenthaler. "President Trump is responsible for our red-hot economy, which features the lowest unemployment rate in fifty years. He brought China to the negotiating table and negotiated better trade deals for American workers and farmers. This political hit job is nothing more than an attempt to prevent President Trump's re-election."

A clip of Reschenthaler's remarks during the mark-up can be found here.

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