2nd Trump Impeachment: How Ohio Delegation Voted

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. representatives from Ohio largely voted against impeaching President Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. The House voted 232-197 in favor, making Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

The historic House vote took place a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a siege that resulted in five deaths — including the beating death of a Capitol Police officer, multiple arrests and a sprawling FBI investigation. The impeachment comes a week before President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated in a city on high alert amid ongoing threats of violence.

The Republican-heavy Ohio delegation voted against impeachment, though there were yay votes from state Democrats.

"Democrats are going to impeach the president for a second time one week, one week before he leaves office. Why? Why? Politics and the fact that they want to cancel the president," said Rep. Jim Jordan on Wednesday.

His colleague, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, one of the longest-serving women in the U.S. Congress voted to impeach Trump. She issued a statement after the vote, saying: “The decision to impeach a President is a grave one – it is a vote that no Member wishes to cast in their lifetime. In my nearly four decades of service in the House of Representatives, I have voted to impeach a President only twice – both times during President Trump’s term in office. The criminal invasion of the U.S. Capitol last week created this unprecedented moment in U.S. history when liberty lovers must respond in the strongest legal manner.”

Here’s how the Ohio delegation voted on the impeachment:

Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican: No

Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat: Yes

Rep. Mike Turner, Republican: No

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Republican: Yes

Rep. Marcia Fudge, Democrat: Yes

Rep. Steve Chabot, Republican: No

Rep. Troy Balderson, Republican: No

Rep. Steve Shivers, Republican: No

Rep. Dave Joyce, Republican: No

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Republican: No

Rep. Joyce Beatty, Democrat: Yes

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Democrat: Yes

Rep. Bob Latta, Republican: No

Rep. Warren Davidson, Republican: No

Rep. Bob Gibbs, Republican: No

Rep. Bill Johnson, Republican: No

What's Next: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will not allow the Senate to vote to convict Trump — which would have been an extraordinary turn by a Republican leader who has defended and protected Trump during the four years of his tumultuous presidency.

• If an impeachment trial is allowed in the Senate, it will be after Biden is inaugurated, McConnell said Wednesday. McConnell has reportedly said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses, and that moving forward with a vote would make it easier for Republicans to purge Trumpism from their party, but said Wednesday he intends to “listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”

• Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, is among more than two dozen Republicans who signaled they would break from their party and vote to impeach Trump.

• "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Trial In The Senate: Two-thirds of the chamber would have to vote to convict Trump. The Senate exonerated Trump last year on charges of abuse of power and contempt of Congress after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the charge against Trump this time is more clear-cut.

Under the Constitution, the Senate could prevent him from holding federal office again and strip him of other perks afforded to former presidents.

As lawmakers debated the need for and grave potential consequence of impeaching Trump for a second time, the FBI warned of armed protests in the days ahead of Biden’s inauguration. Statehouses in all 50 states have been targeted for protests. The agency is also monitoring chatter on an encrypted messaging platform about plans by Trump extremists to form perimeters around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court building as Biden takes the oath of office.

Read More On Patch