Hawaii’s Democratic Congresswoman’s Tulsi Gabbard’s time in Congress is drawing to a close, and she’s apparently still hoping to attract attention on the way out. This Wednesday, when the House voted on articles of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of justice, she was the only member of Congress to vote “present” on both counts. Now, she’s again trying to defend her decision, explaining that — somehow — she thinks that although Trump has committed terrible offenses, accountability should be left to the voters in the 2020 election. In other words, she’d seemingly like Democrats to essentially give up in the face of the Republican lockstep marching that’s made anything they’d do de facto partisan.
She explained:
‘I always think about what’s in the best interests of the country. People will agree sometimes with those decisions, may disagree with those decisions, but my motivation is always coming from a deep love of country, and that’s where, after doing my due diligence, and going through the exhaustive report that was put out at the conclusion of the inquiry, I came to that conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no. A no vote was unacceptable to me because Donald Trump was absolutely guilty of wrongdoing. A yes vote was unacceptable to me because impeachment should never come about as a culmination of a highly partisan process.’
Again — Republicans have marched in unified formation behind the president. Not a single current Republican has made any substantive effort to hold the president accountable for his plot to get dirt from Ukraine on his domestic political opponents. By definition, thanks to their single-minded obstruction, any step that Democrats take would be “partisan.” Gabbard would like Democrats to just not take those steps, apparently.
After noting concern from “Founding Father” Alexander Hamilton about potential politicization of impeachment — which has been enacted by Republicans, not Democrats — she continued:
‘That’s why I believe so strongly that making this statement, voting ‘present,’ taking a stand for the center, standing for our democracy and really that this decision of whether to remove Donald Trump or not must be in the hands of voters. I believe that they will make that decision. I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump.’
Watch:
Gabbard has consistently struggled to garner support above statistical margins of errors in many polls. At present, the RealClearPolitics average of polls puts her base of support at just 1.7 percent of Democratic primary voters, with eight candidates currently polling higher than her. She preemptively insisted that she’d be skipping the debate of Democratic presidential candidates held this week, although it’s certainly unclear that she’d have actually qualified, based on her dismal poll numbers.
No matter her defection, the Democratic case passed the House and attention now turns to ongoing partisan theatrics from the Republicans, who have flatly refused to hold an impartial trial.
Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the chamber’s Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have insisted — in their words — that they would not be “impartial jurors.”
