Demands for Trump to resign or be impeached push Texans in Congress into partisan camps

Updated at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday with Arrington statement.

WASHINGTON – Texas Republicans in Congress have closed ranks around President Donald Trump, denouncing calls for his ouster even as House Democrats geared up to impeach him for a second time.

Trump’s term ends at noon Jan. 20, and Texas supporters such as Rep. Lance Gooden, a Terrell Republican, accuse Democrats of stoking divisions they purport to lament after last week’s attack at the Capitol.

“President Trump is no more responsible for these riots than [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi is for the summer riots that destroyed many businesses across our nation,” Gooden said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. “Everyone needs to calm down and come together and impeachment is a further step in the wrong direction.”

Freshman Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, accused Democrats of “political theater.”

“Impeaching a sitting president is supposed to be a serious and deliberative process. The last impeachment, based on lies and done for purely political purposes, was neither and this week’s effort is even less so. Dragging our country through yet another impeachment will only further divide us and neglect real issues the American people are confronting on a daily basis,” she said Monday night.

All 13 Texas Democrats in the House support Trump’s impeachment for riling the mob that invaded the Capitol – unless he resigns, or Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet strip him of power by invoking the 25th Amendment.

“Trump incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an attempted coup,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who called Trump “dangerous” and demanded he resign the day of the riot. “He should not be the president or even a school board member.”

On Tuesday evening, the House will vote on a resolution urging Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. An effort to approve that resolution by unanimous consent drew a GOP objection on Monday.

The impeachment vote is planned for Wednesday, one week after the attack that interrupted Congress’ affirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. Five people died, including one Capitol Police officer. All 13 Texas Democrats co-sponsored the resolution.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, a Lubbock Republican who voted to reject Biden’s victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania, representing millions of votes, said Tuesday that “unity” now demands setting aside the impeachment effort.

“I do not see ‘high crimes or misdemeanors’ requisite of impeachment, which is not to excuse poor judgment exercised by the President surrounding the events of January 6th,’ he said. “The electoral votes have been certified, President Trump has conceded....To drum up another impeachment proceeding seems politically opportunistic and completely tone deaf to a nation that needs to heal.”

Passions remain high.

In Tomball, northwest of Houston, Rep. Michael McCaul’s district office was vandalized Sunday night.

McCaul, an Austin Republican, was among the minority of GOP House members who bucked colleagues by voting to approve all of Biden’s electors.

“I understand many people are still frustrated with the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, but ... destruction and violence are not the answer. I pray we can come together as Americans, unified knowing we are one nation under God,” he said through an aide.

McCaul, the senior Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee and a former homeland security committee chairman, has not declared how he’ll vote on impeachment. But unlike some colleagues he’s criticized Trump for inciting the violence.

“Rhetoric has consequences. It certainly did in this case. It got this mob into a frenzy,” he said Thursday morning on ABC’s Good Morning America just a few hours after the final vote on Biden’s electors.

How will they vote?

The News has asked all 23 Texas Republicans in the House how they’ll vote. Most are expected to oppose impeachment though fewer than half have made their intentions public.

In the Dallas area, Reps. Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Michael Burgess of Pilot Point and Ron Wright of Arlington have not said yet how they’ll vote. Nor has freshmen Rep. Pat Fallon of Sherman.

Freshman Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, vowed to vote against impeachment. “Partisanship by Nancy Pelosi never stops,” he added.

Outside Texas, a handful of House Republicans plan to support impeachment.

Rep. Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, the top Republican on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, called impeachment an “irresponsible” move that “could well incite further violence.” Those who support it, he said, “are placing a desire for vengeance above the best interests of the country.”

Brady missed the Electoral College votes due to a case of COVID-19 but announced he would have affirmed Biden’s win.

Rep. Brian Babin, R-Woodville, who did join in the objections to Biden’s win, argued that trying to dislodge Trump with so little time left is counterproductive.

“Attempting to impeach the President one week before his term ends will only further divide an America that’s already bleeding. If @SpeakerPelosi and Dems actually believed in the “unity” message they continue to spew, they’d stop this ploy now,” he tweeted.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston has blamed Trump for revving up the mob, saying that “millions of people have been told a fundamental lie” that Congress could somehow undo the election. But impeachment is “going too far” with so little time left, he told Fox News last week. “We need to all calm down. There needs to be some sense of responsibility, but I don’t think in the president’s mind he wanted people to infiltrate the Congress.”

In the House, most Republicans from Texas and around the country voted to throw out electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania when Congress met last Wednesday to review the Electoral College results.

That would have nullified millions of votes certified by those states, and the same lawmakers likewise would have voted to toss out electors, and millions more votes, from four other states if any senators had concurred in the objections.

Rep. Chip Roy of Austin, who had pleaded with fellow Republicans to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s victories as the only constitutionally valid course, echoed others in condemning the push for impeachment.

He and four colleagues who refused to object to Biden’s electors wrote Biden last week urging him to dissuade Pelosi “in the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution. ... A presidential impeachment should not occur in the heat of the moment,” they wrote.

Democrats expressed dismay at the resistance to imposing any penalty on Trump.

“Donald Trump instigated a violent attack against America, demonstrating he is unstable, unhinged, and dangerous,” wrote Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. “Congress will act against this imminent threat and hold this seditious President accountable.”

Gooden accused Democrats of making matters worse.

“The Democrats’ idea of ‘unity and healing’ is making our country go through another theatrical impeachment trial that will FAIL & further divide,” he tweeted. “They said constitutionally objecting to electoral votes was a waste of time ... And this isn’t?