Myrtle Beach United States Republican MP Tom Rice surprised South Carolina’s political universe by voting for President Donald Trump’s impeachment, a move designed to provoke outrage in his home district, where support for Trump is high and extreme .
In a pivot that came without warning his voters or the media, Rice was one of 10 Republicans who voted in favor of the impeachment promoted by Democrats naming Trump for inciting last week’s riot, where his supporters invaded the Capitol.
House majority leader Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat in the state of Palmetto, joined Rice in the impeachment vote.
The other five members of the SC Congress, all Republicans, voted against the approval of the article, including US Congresswoman Charleston Nancy Mace who earlier in the day gave a speech placing the responsibility for the riot on Trump.
Clyburn said in his speech on Wednesday that he wanted to hold Trump accountable after a crowd of his ardent supporters occupied the Capitol building for several hours. Five people died, including a police officer.
“Although the president has failed in his attempt to overthrow our democracy, the events of last Wednesday make it clear that if we do not hold him accountable and remove him from power, a future attempt may succeed,” said Clyburn.
Still, it was Rice’s turnaround from his Republican colleagues that left the state stunned.
Last week, the entire Republican Congressional delegation, including Rice, but excluding Mace, voted against certifying the results of the Electoral College that guarantee the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
“He really believes you do the right thing and everything else will work out,” Rice political advisor Walter Whetsell told the Post and Courier after news of the vote spread.
“He didn’t give two seconds of political thought,” added Whetsell.
Gibbs Knotts, a political scientist and dean at the College of Humanities at the College of Charleston, said that Rice’s turn against the president was the last thing he expected from Wednesday’s vote.
“It’s a big surprise,” said Knotts. “This is a very republican district in which Trump has done very well. But I can see him reacting to what happened last week, it was an attack on members of Congress. ”
Rice’s 7th congressional district covers the northeastern corner of the state bordering North Carolina, includes the Myrtle Beach vacation center and extends into the growing and tobacco region of the counties around Florence. He has been in charge since 2012.
The entire South Carolina delegation in Washington denounced the violence in Washington DC, but until Wednesday only Mace and Clyburn publicly blamed Trump’s rhetoric for fueling the violence last week.
Other House Republicans who voted against impeachment were Jeff Duncan of Laurens, Ralph Norman of Rock Hill, William Timmons of Greenville and Joe Wilson of the Lexington area.
Mace said he chose not to vote for impeachment because it would be a hurried and controversial process.
“The United States House of Representatives has every right to impeach the President of the United States,” she said on Wednesday, in what was her first House speech since taking office last week. “But what we are doing today, rushing this impeachment into a debate of an hour or two on the floor of this Chamber and bypassing the Judiciary, raises big questions about the constitutionality of this process”.
Mace’s statements against Trump and the election results ignited tensions within the Republican Party. An Axios Tuesday night report showed that Mace had engaged in a heated text exchange with US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., In a group message with all the freshman members of the Republican Party.
Greene is well known for her support for the groundless conspiracy theory QAnon, which claims that Trump is secretly fighting a circle of “deep-state” pedophiles, and also alleged unproven electoral fraud that led to his loss.
“I am disgusted with what you and other Q conspiracy theorists did last week in the chamber after all the violence,” Mace texted her on Tuesday.
During his speech, Mace struck a blow to Republican lawmakers who support the baseless allegations of widespread electoral interference.
“I also believe in the need to hold each person accountable, even members of Congress, if they contributed to the violence that has occurred here,” said Mace.
Clyburn was initially concerned that forcing a trial at the time Biden is taking office could hurt the president-elect’s administration by consuming valuable time that his cabinet nominees could be nominated.
But Clyburn told CNN this week that the House could accuse Trump and wait 100 days to transmit the articles to the Senate to give Biden time to “get his agenda up and running”.
The Whip of the House majority said in the House plenary that he sees this as a matter of defending democracy.
“This president’s refusal to participate in a peaceful transfer of power – and his role in causing last week’s violence – represent an existential threat to our constitutional democracy,” said Clyburn.
Policy reporter Jamie Lovegrove contributed to this report.
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