Liz Cheney tries to delay impeachment with pointless demand — then lies about it

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) attempted to delay Donald Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday by pushing for a rare, out-loud roll call vote.

Cheney falsely suggested that, without an audible vote, the American people would not know who voted to impeach Trump.

Cheney, who has criticized House Democrats for wasting time on impeachment that could be spent on other priorities, moved to “provide for voting by a manual call of the roll.”

“So the American people can see precisely who is supporting the impeachment of a duly-elected president, ” the House Republican Conference chair argued, “members should be required to stand and identify themselves openly and on camera on the question of adoption of these articles of impeachment.”

The American people deserve to know precisely which members of the House are voting to impeach a duly-elected President. The Democrats don't want that. They just rejected my motion for a manual call of the roll.

They're afraid because this process has been a sham from the start. pic.twitter.com/iQRshbglou

— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) December 18, 2019

With 431 members of the House currently serving and two articles of impeachment, such a process would take up a lot of time. When the House elected Nancy Pelosi speaker in January, the call of the roll took more than 45 minutes.

Contrary to Cheney’s suggestion, the American people can easily find out how their representatives voted without having to wait for their member’s name to be called alphabetically.

Members will vote on impeachment electronically and those votes — immediately visible inside the chamber on a large sign — will then be posted online by the House Clerk, accessible to all with internet access.

Cheney’s demand was one of several Republican attempts to delay the impeachment proceedings on Wednesday.

Before the debate could even get underway, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) tried to block impeachment by adjourning the House. When that time-consuming stunt failed, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to smear two House Democrats and force a vote to censure them.

Republicans also repeatedly tried to shut down and stall depositions during the impeachment inquiry.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.