Minnesota Democrat Rep. Collin Peterson said that unless new information emerges about President Trump, he will vote against impeachment because he has not committed a crime.
Peterson spoke to The Globe and said that impeachment was “dividing the country for no good reason because he’s not going to be thrown out of office. Why are we doing this?”
The Congressman–who was one of two Democrats to vote against the impeachment inquiry–pointed out that the decision to impeach the President was determined beforehand, “and now they’ve spent a year trying to figure out how they can make a case for it. That’s backwards. I just don’t agree with this.”
He also suggested the best way for Americans to express their disdain with the president would be to vote him out of office in 2020. “If people don’t like Trump, they can vote against him,” he said.
He predicts that 4-5 Democrats will also vote against impeachment.
Peterson’s estimation isn’t too far off from what Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) predicts.
Breitbart points out that Ratcliffe spoke to Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade yesterday and said “between six and ten” Democrats will vote against impeaching President Trump.
“I think somewhere between six and ten,” he said to Kilmeade when asked how many Democrats would vote against it. “I think — I’ll be surprised if it’s less than six. If they get close to ten, double digits, it’s just — I mean, there’s no way the Democrats will be able to message that.”
House Democrats from districts that voted for Trump in 2016 are under enormous pressure to vote against impeachment, or risk losing their seats.
Michigan Democrat, Rep. Elissa Slotkin faced angry constituents yesterday after she announced she was going to support impeachment.
Protesters with “Impeach Slotkin” signs attended the town hall where they chanted “Elissa Slotkin has got to go.”
More from @RepSlotkin’s town hall:
Protestors chant “Elissa Slotkin’s got to go.”
pic.twitter.com/UPv52wuuhQ— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 16, 2019
Slotkin told the audience, “All I can ask from the people who are listening is that while we may not agree, I hope you believe me when I tell you I made this decision out of principle. I will stick to that regardless of what it does to me politically because this is bigger than politics.”
