“The facts are clear—the President withheld weapons from the Ukrainians, even though Congress agreed that the weapons were needed to fight the Russians,” the 35-year-old congressman added. “Instead of using his office to oppose Russian aggression, the President used it to oppose his political opponent. This served his personal interests, but not our national security interests.
“The President has admitted these facts and refuses to acknowledge that he did anything wrong,” Lamb claimed. “I did not come to Congress to impeach the President. But I took an oath to protect our country and defend the Constitution. What the President did was wrong. It made our country less safe. That is why I will vote for impeachment.”
He added that the Democrat-led effort to impeach the president for his foreign policies in Ukraine was not preventing the House from “getting good, bipartisan work done.”
Lamb has been serving in Congress since January after he won a seat portraying himself as a moderate, while touting his history as a Marine and former federal prosecutor.
His decision to support the impeachment effort makes him the seventh Democrat member of Congress from Pennsylvania to do so. Meanwhile, another freshman Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional district and fourth-term Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district declined to disclose how they will vote. Trump won Cartwright’s district in 2016, although Democrat Hillary Clinton won Houlahan’s district.
All nine Republican House members from Pennsylvania have said they will vote against the impeachment articles. That includes Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of suburban Philadelphia, who on occasion breaks party ranks to vote with Democrats. Clinton narrowly won Fitzpatrick’s district in 2016.
Sean Parnell, a combat veteran and a Republican candidate who recently announced a challenge to Lamb, responded to Lamb’s decision late Thursday, writing that he had “sold out” the majority of his constituents in western Pennsylvania.
“We warned voters last year that Conor Lamb would do what [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi tells him. So absolutely nobody was surprised that, after weeks of careful evasions, he finally admitted that he’ll vote to impeach President Trump,” DeMarco said in the statement.
“As a lawyer, Conor should realize the dangers of impeaching a president because we disagree with his approach to foreign policy is a dangerous precedent to set. They’ve even added a charge because President Trump wouldn’t take part in the hyper-partisan circus by the House,” DeMarco added. “It’s time for Conor to admit it: he’s a run-of-the-mill Pelosi Democrat like so many others. And it’s time to call him out on this masquerade.”
In late November, Lamb had signaled that he was undecided on how he would vote with regard to the Democrats’ efforts to impeach the president, saying at the time that he’d been keeping quiet because he considers himself a juror.
Juries “are told to pay attention and follow along but not to talk to each other or make any decisions until all the evidence is in,” Lamb said at the time. “Because sometimes you don’t know the meaning of a particular piece of evidence until you hear from someone else later in the proceeding.”
When the impeachment hearings end, Lamb said he’d “drill into the details and make sure any suggested articles [of impeachment] actually matched up with the evidence.”
Republicans have criticized the entire impeachment process, and also have accused Democrats of trying to use the resolution to put a mask on a sham probe.
