Key Vote “Not Guilty” on the Articles of Impeachment

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote “not guilty” on both articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives. Since winning control of the House in the 2018 midterm election, Democrats looked for any excuse to impeach President Donald Trump. They have made a mockery of the process and of the Constitution, ignoring precedents established in the impeachment inquiries into President Richard Nixon and President Bill Clinton and the procedural protections afforded to those presidents.

Highlighted by the Washington Post, as early as November 2017, the campaign to impeach President Trump had already begun. This campaign is based, not on reason or fact, but entirely on political fears and knee-jerk reactions. As one House Democrat, Rep. Al Green of Texas, stated last year; “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.” Yet, in their speedy crusade against the President, Democrats have consistently attempted to railroad the President and gaslight the public.

Regardless of your feelings on the substance of the allegations against the President, we should all listen to the words of George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley who put it best in his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee: “This is not how an American president should be impeached.” Voting “guilty” on these articles would set a disastrous precedent for future administrations and would only serve to further the vitriolic partisanship that plagues our nation.

As Professor Turley noted in his written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, “[T]he problem with the abuse of power allegation is its lack of foundation.” President Trump denied on multiple occasions that there was any quid pro quo tying the aid to Ukraine to investigations. The most notable claim that there was a quid pro quo comes from a former national security adviser who was relieved of his duties in a very public manner and is seeking to cash in on his time in the White House through a book deal.

“If Trump encouraged an investigation into the Bidens alone, it would not be a viable impeachment claim. The request was inappropriate, but it was not an offer to trade public money for a foreign investigation. President Trump continued to push for these investigations but that does not mean that he was planning to violate federal law [by withholding the aid past the end of the fiscal year on September 30],” Turley noted in his written testimony. “Indeed, Ambassador Sondland testified that, when he concluded there was a quid pro quo, he understood it was a visit to the White House being withheld. White House visits are often used as leverage from everything from United Nations votes to domestic policy changes.”

“Trump can maintain he was suspicious about the Ukrainians in supporting his 2016 rival and did not want to grant such a meeting without a demonstration of political neutrality. If he dangled a White House meeting in these communications, few would view that as unprecedented, let alone impeachable,” Turley added.

In addition to the charge of “abuse of power,” charge of “obstruction of Congress” rings hollow, too. House Democrats had not exhausted all legal mechanisms to compel testimony. House Democrats complain that federal courts would have taken too long to solve the disputes over subpoenas, yet they took 29 days to appoint impeachment managers and transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Even if federal courts took months, or even years, to settle the legal disputes, with a presidential election on the horizon, the electorate would have had the final word.

FreedomWorks will count the votes for both articles of impeachment on our 2020 Congressional Scorecard. The scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks