All but one of Oregon’s U.S. House members voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Freshman Rep. Cliff Bentz, the lone Republican in Oregon’s Congressional delegation, voted against impeachment. Bentz also voted to object to the presidential election results last week after the armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“I continue to share the emotions many are feeling in the aftermath of the unprecedented and unacceptable violence this past week,” Bentz said. " But the current rush-to-judgment impeachment proceedings have only succeeded in dividing our country even more.”
My statement on my vote against the impeachment of the President. #OR02 #orpol pic.twitter.com/CShavDRBCv
— Congressman Cliff Bentz (@RepBentz) January 13, 2021
The four Democrats in Oregon’s House delegation all voted in favor of impeaching Trump.
Rep. Kurt Schrader initially told House colleagues he planned to vote against impeaching Trump again, and he infuriated many activists and fellow Democrats by describing the potential vote as akin to a “lynching” in a House caucus call.
He swiftly apologized for the comment and reversed himself.
This President is a clear and present danger to our country. While I have pushed other remedies for his criminal conduct, impeachment is the tool before us and warranted for his seditious acts.
— Rep. Kurt Schrader (@RepSchrader) January 10, 2021
I will be voting yes on impeachment when brought to the House floor. (1/4)
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici called the people who attacked the Capitol last week “armed domestic terrorists.”
”The events that unfolded that afternoon were dangerous, terrifying, unprecedented and unAmerican,” she said.
Donald J. Trump encouraged and incited the violent attack that occurred on Jan. 6, when Congress was gathered to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. It was an attack on our Capitol and our democracy. Today I voted to impeach him for incitement of insurrection. pic.twitter.com/S2ItDMLZTQ
— Suzanne Bonamici (@RepBonamici) January 13, 2021
Another Democrat, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, said Senate Republicans told Trump there would be no consequences for breaking the public trust when they opted not to convict him when the House first impeached the president in 2019. He also pushed for a criminal investigation into the president’s behavior.
BREAKING: Donald Trump just became the first President of the United States to be impeached twice.
— Earl Blumenauer (@repblumenauer) January 13, 2021
I hope he becomes the first to be convicted by the Senate.
Once he is a private citizen and exposed to the court system, I hope he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Rep. Peter DeFazio said the insurrection was “not a one off, but a long-time coming.” He noted that Trump has repeatedly, for months, repeated the falsehood that the election could be stolen. He reminded his colleagues that Rudy Giuliani, a Trump friend and legal advisor, had called for “trial by combat” at the rally that led into the march on the Capitol, and that Trump and his lawyers had filed numerous failed legal challenges against the election results.
“This was part of a plan to disrupt the Electoral College of the United States,” he said.
Impeaching a President is not something I take lightly, but Donald Trump’s seditious actions were a clear violation of his oath of office and led to nothing short of a direct assault on our democracy. He must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/qjX6YGCY3k
— Rep Peter DeFazio (@RepPeterDeFazio) January 13, 2021
While Bentz stuck with the party line Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican whose district includes much of Southwest Washington, was one of 10 Republicans who voted for impeachment.
Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Portland Democrats, have said they will vote to impeach Trump.
