House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday afternoon that the House will be launching a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump over allegations that he pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden's family.
Pelosi said the president's acts "seriously violated the constitution." She had resisted calls for months to start the impeachment process.
On Tuesday, Pelosi said, "The president must be held accountable, no one is above the law," Pelosi said.
The office of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee shared the following statement on his behalf, “The governor absolutely supports the move given a long pattern of offenses by this president. As the governor has said, 'The president cannot go on unabated. It’s time to act.'”
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-05) said, "This is yet another example of the hyper-partisan political climate today. Instead of waiting for all the facts, House Democrats are jumping to unfounded conclusions."
She continued, “I’m pleased the President is being transparent and releasing the transcript of the conversation this week. I will be reviewing the facts before making any decisions on what’s best for the American people.”
Chair Caleb Heimlich of the Washington State Republican Party said Tuesday, "The Democrats can't stand the idea of losing the 2020 election. That's what this is all about. It's about getting President Trump out of office, any way they can do it. So rather than letting the people vote and abiding by the results of the election, they're trying to undo that. That's why they're pushing this impeachment hearing, pushing more investigation, to see what they can dig up and see what sticks, because that's the only way they can win in 2020."
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) tweeted, "I support Speaker Pelosi’s decision to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry. No one is above the law. We must safeguard our democracy and stop foreign interference in our elections."
Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party Tina Podlodowski said Tuesday, "Look, it's really clear that Trump has violated his oath of office, has betrayed the American people, has betrayed our security as a country, in so many ways, in just this one incident. It doesn't even take into account everything that we've seen revealed over the last year through the Mueller report and so many other places. So it's a long time coming. There's a lot of issues that are on the table. I'm confident that we're going to find that this President does not deserve to be in office and, in fact, has betrayed the American people and the office of president."
On Twitter, Congressman Adam Smith (D-09) said, "It is blatantly obvious that the President, who values his personal and political interests above our national security, abandoned democracy for his own gain. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the House must move forward with the Impeachment process."
He went on to say that "It is now the job of Congress to act as swiftly as possible to uncover the full extent of the President’s corruption and degradation of democracy. The American people deserve to know how the President leveraged congressionally authorized taxpayer dollars for his own personal interest over national security as we move toward impeachment proceedings."
