Congresswoman supports impeachment 1 day after Pence demanded she vote against it

Iowa Rep. Cindy Axne (D) announced on Tuesday that she would vote in favor of both articles of impeachment being levied against Donald Trump in the House.

The announcement comes just one day after Mike Pence visited her state to pressure her against voting for impeachment.

“After carefully reviewing the evidence presented from the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, it’s clear the President abused his power by using $400 million in taxpayer money for his own personal, political gain and obstructed justice by ordering his administration to refuse to testify or provide subpoenaed documents,” Axne wrote in a statement.

“That’s why today, I am announcing my support for the articles of impeachment.”

Pence visited Des Moines on Monday and pushed Axne to vote down impeachment, saying that she had once pledged to work with Trump to get things done in Washington.

“I’m joining you today in Des Moines because the people of Congresswoman Cindy Axne’s district deserve to know that we can still end this in the House,” Pence told a local television station.

“I mean, the fact is that Congresswoman Axne was just elected a little more than a year ago, she promised that she would work in a bipartisan manner with this administration, and yet here we have this partisan impeachment moving forward on this, after a sham investigation,” he continued. “I just think the people of her district deserve better.”

Axne joins several Democrats representing districts that went for Trump in 2016 that now have Democratic congressional members supportive of impeachment.

The House is expected to vote in favor of two articles of impeachment against Trump for abusing his office and obstructing Congress. The articles relate to Trump’s efforts to push Ukraine to investigate his political rivals by withholding critical aid to the country and dangling a possible White House visit, which would have benefited Ukraine significantly.

Trump won Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, which Axne represents, with 48.5% of the vote in 2016. His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, won 45% of the total vote.

President Barack Obama won the district in both 2008 and 2012.

The seat was previously held by Rep. David Young, a Republican; Axne defeated him in 2018 49.3% to 47.1%.

Axne has been listed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as one of their “frontline” members, representing the most vulnerable congressional seats.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.