As most of you know by now, I am currently on full-time duty with the South Carolina Air National Guard. As such, I was unable to be on the House floor today to vote on Speaker Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry.  I regret the fact that I was unable to vote in person, but I will be recording my no vote for the Congressional Record as soon as possible.   

I would have voted no for a number of different reasons. 

First of all, the Democrats’ inquiry has already been going on for weeks, and it could not have been handled worse up to this point. Impeachment is serious, and despite how you feel about the merits of the case against the President, a process that only includes one side of the story is not good for anyone, regardless of party affiliation. Choosing Adam Schiff, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to be the face of the impeachment probe is a dead giveaway that nothing about this will be fair to the President. Mr. Schiff’s conduct during the Russia investigation was purely partisan, and that partisanship has continued as he “investigates” the President over allegations related to Ukraine. It is difficult to conclude anything other than the fact that the newly crowned lead investigator of this “process” has already made up his mind about the results and simply wants the President out of office. 

Unfortunately for House Democrats, impeaching the President and nullifying an election where the American people made their choice for President cannot simply be about sour grapes or political hatred. Absent evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors -- the Constitutional standard for impeachment -- Congress cannot remove a duly elected President. 

In the past, whether during the Nixon or Clinton impeachment probes, the Administration and the minority party in the House were afforded certain due process rights to ensure a fair and open process. This tradition has been largely ignored by Mr. Schiff and House Democrats. House Republicans have been unable to review witness interview transcripts, call their own witnesses, or cross-examine Democrats’ witnesses. Hearings have been held behind closed doors, out of sight from the American public. Ending these one-sided practices would go a long way towards establishing trust between members of both parties.

Access to interview transcripts is particularly important to the inquiry’s credibility. To this point, Mr. Schiff and some of his colleagues have been selectively leaking information from their interviews that paints the President in a bad light. But these leaks lack the context of the totality of the interviews. Without access to interview transcripts, Members that do not sit on the committee responsible for conducting the interviews are left in the dark. The steady stream of leaks from interviews which damage the President’s public standing have to stop and speak directly to the rampant partisanship at the heart of this investigation. 

Now, over a month into this unjust proceeding, the Speaker has finally offered a vote on the House floor on the matter. If her interest was in a fair process, this vote would have happened weeks ago, BEFORE witnesses were interviewed, subpoenas were issued, and the President was lambasted by the main-stream media. Today’s vote provides a veil of propriety to an illegitimate process. Without transparent procedural improvements that honor historical impeachment processes, this will continue to be nothing more than a political witch hunt.