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Md. Rep. Andy Harris skips Trump impeachment vote

Maryland’s sole Republican Congress member bailed on Wednesday’s historic vote to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time.

Embattled Rep. Andy Harris — who has been called on to resign by other lawmakers in the aftermath of the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol — called the impeachment vote “pointless” because Joe Biden will be president in less than a week.

Instead, Harris, an anesthesiologist, said in a tweet he was “caring for patients,” and noted that he would have voted against impeachment.

“[House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s] divisive, hastily called, and politically motivated snap impeachment is a waste of time when we will swear in President-elect Biden in fewer than seven days’ time,” Harris said.

“In light of his calls for unity and healing, I call on the President-elect to disavow this action. Engaging in a political impeachment that will be moot in one week was another waste of time brought to you by the Democrat majority.”

In all, 10 Republican Congress members sided with the Democrats in Wednesday’s 232-197 vote. There were three other Republicans who did not vote: Kay Granger of Texas; Gregory Murphy of North Carolina; and Daniel Webster of Florida.

Harris has been accused of stoking insurrection in the run-up to last week’s siege.

On Monday, 71 members of the state House of Delegates and 13 members of the state Senate signed a letter calling on Harris to resign.

House again passes a resolution seeking to halt military action in Iran as the conflict escalates

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, sending a warning to President Donald Trump for the second time as the war has escalated and the future of the conflict is increasingly uncertain. The 214-208 vote requiring congressional approval for the war came just before the Senate narrowly rejected a similar resolution, 47-49. Though the votes forced by Democrats are largely symbolic, they are meant as a signal to the Republican president that his support on Capitol Hill is chipping away as the war drags on and lawmakers in both parties have questioned his administration’s endgame. The war has had “no clear mission, no strategy, no end goal,” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who led the resolution on the House floor. The House resolution passed after a handful of Republicans voted with Democrats to end the war. But the vast majority of Republicans in both chambers voted to back the war and cede congressional war powers to Trump.
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