Media

Chris Wallace: As impeachment vote was cast, ‘I can feel goosebumps’

by Joe Concha 10/31/19 04:02 PM ET

“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace said Thursday that he “can feel goosebumps” during an impeachment resolution vote on the House floor during the network’s live coverage of the event.

Wallace’s commentary comes after the House made its biggest step to date toward the third presidential impeachment in the history of the United States. Members of the House approved procedures for an impeachment inquiry to be moved from closed-door hearings to the public view on television.

“As they called the vote, I have to say I can feel goosebumps,” Wallace said. “You cannot overstate how dramatic this is and what a decision the Democrats have made to pursue this course.”

The measure, which passed in a 232-196 vote along party lines, establishes rules for open hearings and the questioning of witnesses by members and staff.

{mosads}Wallace said that an impeachment of Trump is decidedly different than that of President Nixon in 1974, which had bipartisan support.

“There was a bipartisan agreement at that time, even though obviously the impeachment of Richard Nixon was a big deal, but a bipartisan agreement that it needed to go to that kind of an investigation,” Wallace, a 51-year news veteran, said Thursday.

“Here you see the party divisions holding, all the Democrats with the exception of I think two, voting for this inquiry, all of the Republicans I think with no defections voting against it, so this city is still polarized despite the efforts of Democrats and their closed-door hearings to try to build a case against the president,” he continued.

“What will be interesting to see is what happens when we have open hearings and the American people get to judge and conceivable to put pressure on their representatives and either, ‘Yep, there’s a case against the president’ or ‘Nope, there isn’t.’ But the Democrats have cast their die now and this is going to roll out over the next two months,” Wallace concluded.

The two Democrats who voted against the resolution were Reps. Collin Peterson (Minn.) and Jeff Van Drew (N.J.), who both represent districts in blue states won by the president in 2016.

Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), who broke from the GOP earlier this year, voted for the measure.