WASHINGTON – Nowhere has the party dispute over President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry been more apparent than in the South Carolina delegation.
All state Republicans in the House were against Thursday’s measure that defines how the investigation would be conducted, while the two Democrats in Palmetto state voted in favor.
Republican Party members throughout the process vehemently rejected claims that Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president – in which he pushed for investigations into the 2020 presidential candidate’s son Joe Biden – was inappropriate.
Far from criticizing Trump for withholding aid to Ukraine until they agreed to investigate Biden’s son, who was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, U.S. deputy Tom Rice argued that Trump would be wrong not to do so.
“If he didn’t check and try to avoid as much corruption as he could, that would be more of an impeachable offense than saying, ‘Are you going to check for corruption?'” Said Rice, R -Myrtle Beach.
As for Democrats’ concerns that the measure would interfere with the American political process, Rice said that implementing such a rule would effectively risk granting immunity to anyone who decides to run.
“If someone knows that a fraud is taking place for someone running for office, they shouldn’t ask about it because it could affect an election?” Said Rice. “This is absurd.”
Party results reflect a lasting polarization among the general public.
In an October Post and Courier-Change Research poll, 90 percent of South Carolina’s Democratic voters said they strongly support Trump’s impeachment, while 92 percent of the state’s Republican voters said they strongly oppose it.
Only a small group of voters in any party expressed any ambiguity about their position.
Most Republican SC lawmakers insist that they would be open to changing their minds about impeachment. But if such an unlikely change were to happen, they add, it would almost certainly not be related to Trump’s interactions with Ukraine.
“If the president broke the law, of course, but there is absolutely no proof of that,” said Congressman Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens.
Some, however, concluded that the impeachment process was so tainted by politics that they could not foresee any new evidence that would change the balance.
“For years, many people said that Mr. Obama should be impeached and said no, we need to discuss the issues and not create divisions,” said US Representative Joe Wilson, R-Springdale. “It is not impeachment, it is undoing the election.”
Four of the five members of the Republican Party House voted against the measure in the House on Thursday, while the missing member, Deputy William Timmons, R-Greenville, was absent from the SC National Air Guard. He would have voted against it if he were present, his office said.
On the Democratic side, House Speaker Jim Clyburn of Columbia helped to guarantee the party’s unity in the issue, arguing that “disturbing evidence” has already revealed that Trump “abused its power, sought to undermine our democracy and put our national security at risk. “
Among the few tough Democrats who came to support the impeachment inquiry this week was US Deputy Joe Cunningham, the Charleston freshman, who said he hoped the resolution would allow the investigation to become more transparent.
Republican groups have pledged to use the impeachment issue to try to topple Cunningham and other vulnerable Democrats in competitive districts next year.
“Democrats like Joe Cunningham chose to side with Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and the Socialist squad because of their voters and officially committed political neglect,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Joe Jackson. “Americans will remember how these Democrats chose to seek division and research on progress and promises.”
Follow Jamie Lovegrove on Twitter @jslovegrove.