Jaime Herrera Beutler: Republican legislator linked to the surprise call for witnesses at the impeachment trial

Jaime Herrera Beutler: Republican legislator linked to the surprise call for witnesses at the impeachment trial

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Herrera Beutler and other Republicans informed of the conversation confirmed to CNN that Trump commented that would-be rebels cared more about the election results than McCarthy. House managers and Trump’s legal team agreed to insert a congresswoman’s statement into the trial record, rather than press for a deposition.

Despite causing a stir in Saturday’s proceedings, the moderate Republican congressman maintained a relatively low profile during her time on Capitol Hill.

Herrera Beutler has served in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District since 2011 and has held her seat for the past decade, being re-elected for a sixth term in 2020. She worked as an employee of the Washington GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and also served in Washington’s state for about three years before being elected to Congress at age 31.

As a young mother and one of the few women at the Republican conference – and one of the even fewer Republican women of color in Congress – Herrera Beutler championed maternal care and child health issues and co-founded the Maternity Care Caucus, focused on promoting legislation to help mothers.

It has sponsored two laws – both of which have become law – to prevent maternal mortality and provide children with “medically complex” conditions in Medicaid with better access to care and treatment. Another measure she supported required that the Transportation Security Administration better accommodate parents traveling with breast milk and feeding equipment.

Shortly after her re-election in 2012 for a second term in Congress, Herrera Beutler announced that she was pregnant with her first child, who had been diagnosed with a fatal condition. Her daughter Abigail was the first baby to survive childless delivery.

Although Herrera Beutler had voted widely according to Trump’s priorities, she occasionally broke with the former president and the Republican Party.

In 2017, despite supporting the repeal of Obamacare, she opposed the Republican health project because, she said, the “difficulties this project would create for millions of children” who depend on Medicaid for health care “have been left unresolved” .
She was one of 13 House Republicans who disapproved of Trump’s 2019 declaration of a national emergency to build his border wall, according to Roll Call.
And in 2016, she publicly denounced Trump over obscene comments revealed in the infamous “Access Hollywood” video and said she would instead write to former Mayor Paul Ryan.
Still, she told the Seattle Times that she would support Trump in 2020, citing his tax cuts and other economic policies.
Just a week after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Herrera Beutler was one of 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment. The congresswoman faced a reaction in her home state for her vote.

On Saturday, Democratic senators along with five Republicans voted to allow witnesses at Trump’s impeachment trial, with House impeachment managers seeking to call Herrera Beutler as a witness.

But shortly thereafter, the Senate changed course, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, the principal impeachment manager, read Herrera Beutler’s statement on the trial record.

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