Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) today issued the following statement regarding articles of impeachment against President Donald John Trump:
“For nearly three months, I have listened to accounts of the President’s abuses of power. I read testimony, watched hearings, and weighed the growing mountain of evidence indicating historic presidential misconduct. I received messages from thousands of constituents, most of whom expressed the opinion that President Trump should be impeached.
“The names and details in the story of President Trump’s extortion of Ukraine are complex, but their import is clear and simple. President Trump demanded foreign influence in our elections. He used the power and weight of his office in pursuit of personal benefit, and did so in a manner that jeopardized the national security of the United States.
“The facts allow for no other interpretation: President Trump violated his oath of office to faithfully execute the laws. In order to cover up his offenses, he engaged in unprecedented obstruction of Congress’s oversight power and role as an equal branch of government. He committed high crimes that were more brazenly corrupt than any others in American presidential history. The Founders enumerated the impeachment power in the Constitution specifically to provide a recourse for a president like Donald Trump, and ignoring what he has done would endanger our democracy.
“I did not come to Congress to impeach anyone, but the gravity of these offenses allows no other choice to any person of conscience serving in the House of Representatives. For the future of our democracy, President Trump must be impeached, and I will vote for both articles of impeachment against him.”