As part of the Amarillo Pioneer Voter Guide, we asked all the candidates running to replace U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) where they stand on impeachment and if they would have voted for impeachment against President Donald Trump had they been in the House at the time. Here are their answers:
Full Voter Guide responses will be available soon at AmarilloVotes.com. Candidates who were unable to be contacted or who did not submit their answers are not listed.
Jamie Culley (R)
“No. The claimed justification falls far short of the standard. It also weaponizes impeachment to now be nothing more than a tool to oppose the other party. [T]his will become a routine action to be used by either side resulting in continuous impeachments well into the future.”
Chris Ekstrom (R)
“No, its a sham!”
Jason Foglesong (R)
“No. The impeachment is a scam, and is based on a phone call that someone heard about and wasn't involved in. The claims made by Adam Schiff and the content of President Trump's transcript do not add up. The relationship the ‘whistle-blowers’ have with our intelligence apparatus and the Democrat party are highly suspicious.
President Trump has committed no crime and the actions he took regarding Ukraine fall within the powers of his office.
Democrats have been screaming about impeachment since Trump won the election, and the majority of the media has supported this.”
Timothy W. Gassaway (D)
“Yes, based on the information available I would have voted for articles of impeachment. The president asking for an investigation into U.S. citizens by a foreign government and was clearly inappropriate.”
Lee Harvey (R)
“No, He did not do anything wrong on the phone call. He did not withhold the money.”
Richard Herman (R)
“No because he has not done anything wrong but do what a good leader does.”
Ronny Jackson (R)
“Absolutely not! It has been a colossal waste of taxpayers money. The Democrat party has failed to full-fill their duty to the American Public for a full 3 years now while they have been consumed with efforts to manufacture articles of impeachment and remove the President from office for purely political reasons. This process has been an embarrassment to the country and a shameful attempt to undermine the will of the people that legitimately elected the President to office.”
Diane Knowlton (R)
“No. There was no evidence supporting the impeachment of President Trump. The House Democrats abused their Constitutional power of impeachment for their own political purposes, similar to what Senate Democrats did during the Kavanaugh hearings, when they attempted to block the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh for their own political purposes.”
Mark Neese (R)
“I believe every president must be accountable to the American people. This impeachment process has been baseless and I would definitely not support it. I would not support this type of impeachment on any president.“
Greg Sagan (D)
“Yes. The two Articles adopted by the House have abundant support in the president's own words and public deeds, not to mention supporting sworn testimony from a considerable number of qualified witnesses, to make a prima facie case for impeachment.”
Vance Snider (R)
“Absolutely Not! Since day one the democratic party has sought to impeach our President, looking for any ridiculous accusation they could throw at him. We have so many issues facing this country that have not been addressed because one party is upset their candidate did not win and wasted weeks and weeks for an investigation of the President instead of addressing ridiculous EPA restrictions or discussing the Farm Bill.”
Gus Trujillo (D)
“I don’t believe I would have voted for the articles of impeachment. I understand that the House needed to make a statement with such a vote, but I felt that it was premature. While there was some evidence insinuating wrongdoing by the President, I don’t believe that it was clear and convincing. The process to impeachment also seemed to be rushed.”
Monique Worthy (R)
“Hell No! There was literally nothing there to impeach him on. Which is why neither one of the articles have been tied to any federal statutes. This is the democrats last ditch effort to try and salvage an election they bitterly lost in 2016. And had we had strong Republicans with backbones in congress before this congress, we would have never gotten to this point in the first place. Weak Republicans got us here.”