Republican Lawmaker: Impeachment Vote May Have Been “Political Suicide”

In an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) patted himself on the back for his bravery in being one of only ten Republicans to vote for President Donald Trump’s second impeachment last week. Asked by host George Stephanopoulos if he might not have sealed his own political fate by going against his party, his president, and the vast majority of Republican voters, Meijer acknowledged that he might have committed “political suicide.”

“Oh, I may very well have, but I think it’s also important that we have elected leaders who are not thinking solely about what’s in their individual self-interest. Not what is going to be politically expedient, but what we actually need for the country,” Meijer said. “I want to make sure that we have leaders in office who are folks saying, you know, the fact that we are a nation of laws, not men, and who are putting the interest of the country first rather than our own political careers.”

While we do have a certain amount of admiration for any politician who is willing to vote against his own interests, it’s a little more difficult for us to see Meijer and his compatriots as the heroes they seem to regard themselves as. Meijer, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and the rest didn’t just vote against Trump, they voted against their constituents. They voted against the people who put them into power. They voted, at last, in collusion with a Democratic Party that is hellbent on revenge. That’s not heroic in our book, that’s just betrayal.

Many House Republicans see it the same way, and there have been calls for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to boot Cheney out of her leadership position in the party. On Sunday, Meijer said that he and his turncoats would try to protect her.

“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that those who stood by their principles, like Liz Cheney, that that is not something that is punished,” Meijer replied. “I know there is a division that has already occurred. We need to address some of the issues that we have within, you know, the congressional Republican conference, but I have been very impressed by the leadership that Liz Cheney has shown.”

But again, the problem is not with Cheney’s “principles,” it is the fact that she’s shown herself to be wildly out of step with her own party. And someone like that should not have a position of leadership within Congress. Honestly, a person like that would preferably not be in Congress at all, but we’ll let Wyoming voters decide in 2022.