North Carolina’s David Price says he’ll vote for both articles of impeachment
Story updated Dec. 13 after House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment.
Democratic U.S. House members David Price and GK Butterfield will vote for both articles of impeachment in the House against President Donald Trump.
The House Judiciary Committee unveiled two articles of impeachment — one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress — against Trump on Tuesday. The Democrat-led committee approved both articles on Friday morning. A vote in the full House could happen next week.
The articles of impeachment are focused on Trump’s withholding of aid to Ukraine. House Democrats allege that Trump held up the aid, since released, in order to get the country to announce an investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“Attempting to extort a vulnerable foreign leader in order to achieve personal political gain and then obstructing the legitimate Congressional investigations once his behavior was exposed violates his oath of office,” Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, said in a statement.
“I do not take this responsibility lightly, or without thorough consideration of the facts at hand. It is my judgment that the Constitution requires us to act, and I intend to vote in favor of both articles of impeachment when they are brought before the full House for a vote.”
Butterfield, a Wilson Democrat, said on May 30, after the release of the Mueller report, that he would vote to impeach Trump.
“The evidence that has been produced so far is sufficient in my opinion to support an impeachment inquiry and impeachment and removal,” Butterfield said then.
He supports the articles of impeachment announced Tuesday.
Price, Butterfield and Rep. Alma Adams, a Democrat who represents Charlotte, voted in favor of the impeachment inquiry in late October.
All 10 Republican members of the House delegation voted against the inquiry and none has given any indication they would support the articles of impeachment. Rep. Ted Budd and Rep. Patrick McHenry expressed their disapproval of the articles of impeachment shortly after the vote on Friday morning.
“I will be voting against these politically-motivated attacks,” McHenry tweeted.
Budd said in a statement: “I will be voting against the articles of impeachment. From start to finish House Democrats ran a show trial against President Trump. They brought forward no witnesses who were directed by the president to engage in any kind of bribe, extortion scheme, or other poll-tested crime House Democrats decided to pursue.”
The Senate expects to hold a trial in January if Trump, as anticipated, is the third president to be impeached by the House. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, indicated Monday that he is a “definite no” on impeachment.
Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said during an event at Wake Forest University in November that “no party wins” during impeachment. Burr was a member of the U.S. House when President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998. Burr voted for two of the four articles of impeachment against Clinton, who was acquitted in the Senate in 1999.
Burr said the framers made the bar for impeachment high on purpose.
“The test we’re going to have, and I think we’ll be presented with it, does it reach the level for removal from office?” Burr said.
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This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 12:02 PM.
