Following last week’s House vote to bring the truth to light about President Trump’s behavior through a transparent, open process, the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board blasted Michigan Republicans for their vote that “beggars belief” in showing “unskeptical fealty” to their party bosses.
Detroit Free Press Editorial
Editorial Board, November 2, 2019
Last November, in an election many regarded as an opportunity to erect a congressional firewall between the president and his most destructive impulses, we embraced candidates animated by objectives far more pragmatic than Trump’s removal.
We shared the view, eloquently articulated by moderate Democrats such as Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Troy) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), that Congress had bigger fish to fry.
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That is the momentous constitutional challenge to which the U.S. House of Representatives rose Thursday with its vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry, and the obligation moderate Democrats including Michigan’s Stevens and Slotkin must honor, whatever risk it may pose to their own political futures.
It beggars belief that Michigan’s Republican representatives in the House refuse to recognize the challenge the president’s conduct poses to Congress’ own authority. Thursday’s vote was not a vote on the merits of impeachment, but only an acknowledgement that the president’s conduct raises questions warranting an independent investigation…
The Michigan Republican delegation’s unskeptical fealty to a president who displays only contempt for their legislative authority is a violation of their oaths to defend the constitution. And it is less likely to appease a reckless president than to leave a permanent stain on the integrity of those who participated.