First-term GOP Rep. Peter Meijer says he 'may very well have' ended his political career by voting to impeach Trump
GOP Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan said on Sunday that he might have ended his political future by voting to impeach President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on ABC's "This Week," host George Stephanopoulos asked Meijer if he potentially damaged his career beyond repair in joining nine of his Republican colleagues in voting to remove Trump from office.
"I may very well have," Meijer said. "But I think it's also important that we have elected leaders who are not thinking solely about what's in their individual self-interest, not what is going to be politically expedient, but what we actually need for the country."
Related: Professor explains exactly how impeachment works
GOP Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan, who has been in office for less than a month, said on Sunday that he might have ended his political future by voting to impeach President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on ABC's "This Week," host George Stephanopoulos asked Meijer if he potentially damaged his career beyond repair in joining nine of his Republican colleagues in voting to remove a president from his own party from office.
"I may very well have," Meijer said. "But I think it's also important that we have elected leaders who are not thinking solely about what's in their individual self-interest, not what is going to be politically expedient, but what we actually need for the country."
He added: "Impeaching a president was nothing that we ever hoped to do. Many of us deliberated deeply. This was not as easy as just saying what is in our best political interest, but, frankly, looking at the evidence, looking at the facts of the case, reading the article and asking, is this true by our own experience, by our lived experience? And it was."
—This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 17, 2021
On Jan. 14, Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for "incitement of insurrection" of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, making him the sole president in US history to be impeached twice.
Meijer, who revealed last week that he and other colleagues purchased body armor due to death threats over the impeachment vote, said the Capitol riots went against Trump's legislative achievements.
"I think it's time that we acknowledge that what happened on January 6 was a betrayal of what had been accomplished over the past four years, that it was a culmination of a politics that at all too often fanned flames, rather than focusing on building and governing," said Meijer.
When asked if the GOP should look past Trump, Meijer contended that the president brought "change" to Washington DC, but that he was unable to control his impulses.
"You know, the president brought some necessary energy," Meijer said. "He brought some necessary ideas. He shook the tree. He was a change agent. The challenge was that he didn't know when to stop, and he didn't draw the line."
He added: "To me, political violence is the line that we must draw."
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