WASHINGTON (LEX 18) — Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said in a tweet Wednesday he plans to oppose the second impeachment of President Donald Trump when it comes up for a vote in the House of Representatives Wednesday evening.
Massie said he will vote "nay" on impeachment because it will "unnecessarily increase political division in our country and serves no real purpose."
I will vote Nay on Impeachment today. I think pursuing impeachment will unnecessarily increase political division in our country and serves no real purpose.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 13, 2021
Trump is on the verge of being impeached for a second time as the House planning the unprecedented vote one week after he encouraged a mob of loyalists to “fight like hell” against election results and the U.S. Capitol became the target of a deadly siege.
While the first impeachment of Trump last year brought no Republican votes in the House, a small but significant number of leaders and other lawmakers are breaking with the party to join Democrats on Wednesday even with days remaining in the president’s term.
Trump, who would become the only U.S. president twice impeached, faces a single charge of “incitement of insurrection.”
At least five Republican lawmakers, including third-ranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, have already vowed to vote to impeach Trump.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
So far, Republican Reps. John Katko of New York, a former federal prosecutor; Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, an Air Force veteran; Fred Upton of Michigan; and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state announced they, too, would join Cheney to vote to impeach.
