Montana’s congressional delegation is reacting in the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement Tuesday afternoon that the House will move forward with an official impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday morning, Republican Senator Steve Daines tweeted “Impeachment. Obsession.” over a GIF of a character from the popular TV show “The Office” rolling his eyes.
A spokesperson wrote YPR that Daines “believes the Democrats sound like a broken record with their two plus years of impeachment threats.” She added now isn’t the time to speculate about Trump’s alleged conversations with the Ukrainian president and Daines looks forward to hearing the facts.
Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte chastised Democrats for investigating the President over addressing what he called the “crisis on our border” and episodes of mass violence.
"But instead this committee has been taken over with impeachment fever. Madam Chair, if you have to investigate something, if your fever just won't break, maybe you could bring Inspector General Horowitz from the Justice Department to discuss the actions of the FBI, CIA and Special Council. Maybe you could do more than take a shallow look at the deep state," Gianforte said.
A spokesperson for Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester wrote in a statement to MTPR, “Senator Tester is very disturbed by reports that President Trump pressured the leader of a foreign country to investigate his political opponent. The Trump Administration must immediately release the Inspector General’s report on the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress. Folks in both parties agree that Americans deserve transparency and accountability from their government, and withholding the report from a co-equal branch of government is unprecedented, and it’s dangerous. He believes we have to get the facts from the IG report before we can talk about next steps.”
Governor Steve Bullock, who’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, wrote in a campaign statement, "If the President of the United States used the power of his office to extort a foreign leader into investigating a political opponent, Congress has a responsibility to get answers. If the President abused his office and jeopardized American national security for his own personal gain, then the House needs to impeach him. At some point, this is bigger than Donald Trump — this is about a 243-year experiment called representative Democracy."
Trump on Tuesday called the allegations against him "ridiculous" and a "witch hunt." He contended he did nothing wrong and is promising to release a transcript of the call that triggered Pelosi’s announcement Wednesday.
