Party lines define Pennsylvania congressional delegation take on impeachment

Party lines were starkly visible Thursday as five Western Pennsylvania congressmen weighed in on the impeachment resolution that narrowly passed in the U.S. House, 232-196.

Mike Kelly of Butler, John Joyce of Hollidaysburg, and Guy Reschenthaler of Peters — like 191 other House Republicans — voted against continuing the impeachment inquiry and harshly criticized Democrats for weeks of closed-door hearings. Two Democrats from New Jersey and Minnesota also voted against the resolution.

Local Democrats — Mike Doyle of Forest Hills and Conor Lamb of Mt. Lebanon — voted with 229 party colleagues in favor of the continuing investigation. U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, and independent from Michigan who left the Republican Party this year, voted with the majority to formalize the inquiry.

Reschenthaler, whose district includes Greene, Fayette, Washington counties and part of Westmoreland, has had a ringside seat to the proceedings as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, one of several committees that have been conducting closed-door hearings.

In an interview shortly before Thursday’s vote, Reschenthaler told the Tribune-Review that he is angry that the closed hearings are consuming countless hours of session time, while other issues have been relegated to the back burner.

“I’m very conservative, but I’m pragmatic. I like to get things done. I have a reputation for work,” he said. “What is so frustrating, whether you are for or against impeachment, is that everything else has ground to a halt.”

In a statement issued by his office shortly after Thursday’s vote, Reschenthaler, who has been harshly critical of the inquiry, called it an illegitimate “partisan attempt to undo the 2016 election.”

Lamb, a freshman Democrat whose district adjoins Reschenthaler’s, is among a handful of Democrats who have refrained from calling for impeachment.

The Allegheny County Democrat, who already faces opposition in the 2020 election, couched his statement in support of the resolution in carefully chosen words.

“This resolution sets the rules for the upcoming hearings. I believe everyone benefits from clear rules, so I voted yes. I have not made any decision about impeachment, nor will I until all the evidence is in,” Lamb said in a statement.

On the other side of the aisle, Joyce, another freshman Republican, and Kelly, now in his fifth term, were unstinting in their criticism of the investigation and Thursday’s vote.

Kelly issued a statement calling it an attempt to legitimize an “unfair, hyper-partisan inquiry that is already underway.”

Doyle, the longest-serving member of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation, defended the resolution.

In an email, Doyle said the resolution sets ground rules for transparency in an inquiry that has “uncovered substantial evidence that the president abused the power of his office, undermined our democracy, and endangered our national security.”