Clyburn: House has responsibility to impeach Trump over Georgia call

Rep. James Clyburn (R-S.C.), said Sunday that House lawmakers have a responsibility to stick up for the integrity of federal elections with an impeachment of the president over his phone call with Georgia officials.

Speaking with host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the House Majority Whip argued that impeachment of the president was a necessary strategy even given the short time left in President Trump’s single term in office.

“We heard it. On the phone, talking to the secretary of state. Almost ordering him…to find 11,700-some-odd votes,” Clyburn said, referring to audio reported by The Washington Post detailing President Trump’s call with Georgia’s top elections official last week. “That is impeachable.”

“We in the House of the Representatives have got the responsibility to maintain the integrity of the federal election. We tell people all the time that your vote is your voice. Well, our vote is our voice, and we must voice disapproval over what the president did,” Clyburn added.

House Democrats are set to pursue a second impeachment of the president this week over his incitement of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, a bloody incident that resulted in five deaths including that of a Capitol Police officer.

The president has faced the strongest bipartisan criticism of his presidency over the riot, which led lawmakers to scramble for cover and hide in secure areas with their staff as the president’s supporters vandalized the building, including congressional offices. 

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Clyburn told Chris Wallace that a House vote on impeachment “will come Tuesday and maybe Wednesday, but it will happen this week.”

“The article has been drawn up,” he added.

Clyburn also defended the prospect of conducting either the impeachment or the Senate trial after Trump leaves office, saying that in its 2019 impeachment of the president, the House did not send the articles to the Senate the next day.

“They were delivered at the time that was most appropriate so we’ll do the same thing in this instance,” he told Wallace.

Numerous Republicans including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Maine) and Mitt Romney (Utah) have urged the president to resign or face removal over the siege of the Capitol.

A number of House Democrats have also urged Vice President Mike Pence to utilize the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office, a move that Pence himself has reportedly rejected.

–Updated at 10:08 a.m.