In the News

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts’s 1st District said Thursday that the House vote to advance the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump to the public phase was “not done lightly" and came at a time when the nation found itself “at the intersection of history.”

“The resolution provides the path forward for public hearings,” Neal said in a statement after the House voted 232-196 in favor of House Resolution 660, which established guidelines for Democrats and Republicans to call on witnesses, issue subpoenas and request documents. “It is time that President Trump be held accountable for his actions. The American people expect truth and transparency from their government and the time for that has come. While it is unfortunate that we have come to this point in our democracy, as Thomas Paine once said, ‘the times have found us.’”

A whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump may have broken federal law and jeopardized national security sparked the impeachment inquiry after the president requested “a favor” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July phone call. Administration officials told the whistleblower they were concerned Trump had used military aide to Ukraine as leverage to get Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of political rival and former Vice President Joe Biden.

The Washington Post reported that moments after Trump ended his phone call with Zelensky, White House lawyer John Eisenberg proposed moving a transcript of the call to a highly classified server and restricting access to it.

On Thursday, Republicans clamored on the House floor that the last several weeks of impeachment hearings have been held in secret, with strategic leaks from Democrats. They argued the resolution approved Thursday denied the president due process and gave the Democrats too much power to disregard GOP members’ requests for witnesses.

U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana said Democrats were not initiating impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors, which is the constitutional standard, but because they don’t agree with the results of the 2016 election.”

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, one of several driving the inquiry, said both Democrats and Republicans have taken part in gathering testimony despite alleged “attempts to obstruct” the investigation. He noted during the fact-finding phase, closed-door meetings were essential, but the time had come for public hearings.

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts’s 4th District, who is challenging Sen. Ed Markey in a Democratic primary, said Trump “threatened security of an ally unless they investigated an American, his political opponent, to benefit his campaign. Those are facts. Now we must decide if that behavior should be allowed for anyone who will hold office once he’s gone. The choice should be clear.”

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts’s 7th District, said in a tweet that she was “not joyous in this moment,” but she was “resolved, and I stand in firm solidarity with my colleagues as we pursue impeachment.”

Trump, who earlier in the day repeated his assertion that the investigation was a “witch hunt,” retweeted a Halloween message from First Lady Melania Trump before retweeting a host of GOP lawmakers blasting the Democrats for their actions against the president.

“Democrats don’t care about the facts or passing legislation. They only care about impeaching the President less than 13 months before an election,” tweeted the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. “The American people see right through @RepAdamSchiff’s sham #impeachment process.”