Michigan GOP lawmaker says he’s ‘strongly considering’ impeachment

Newly sworn-in Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) said on Monday that he’s “strongly considering” impeachment after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol last week.

“When it comes to impeachment, it’s something we’re strongly considering at this point,” Meijer said in a video released by a reporter with a Fox affiliate in Michigan. 

“Again, you know, there are timelines and other considerations and additional information that I want to have before making that decision affirmatively,” he continued. “But, again, I think what we saw on Wednesday left the president unfit for office.”

Michigan GOP Rep. Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) says he’s “strongly considering” impeachment: pic.twitter.com/PpTGmcMOtx

— Aaron FOX 17 (@AaronParseghian) January 11, 2021

Supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol last week, temporarily halting Congress from counting Electoral College votes that affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Some told news outlets that they flocked to Washington, D.C., at the request of the president, who addressed them in a speech and encouraged them to march on the Capitol “to show strength” and “fight like hell.”

The riots resulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman shot by a different Capitol Police officer. 

In response, numerous Democrats and several Republicans have called for Trump’s resignation or removal. House Democratic leaders introduced an article of impeachment against the president on Monday for “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States,” which will be voted on on Wednesday. 

In the days after the riots, Meijer has condemned the president and the attack, including in a Detroit News op-ed over the weekend in which the new representative expressed regret for not bringing his gun to D.C. 

“I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that the President of the United States was completely MIA while the next three individuals in the line of succession (VP, Speaker of House, Senate Pres Pro Tempore) were under assault in the Capitol,” Meijer said in a tweet.

“It didn’t have to end like this, with five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer. This should be a moment of reckoning for the country as a whole, and the conservative movement in particular,” he wrote in the op-ed. “If the Republican party ever hopes to regain the public’s trust and lead the country forward after this heinous assault, it must first be honest with itself.”

The Michigan Republican replaced former Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) after Amash left the Republican Party following his vote in favor of impeaching Trump in 2019.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has distributed procedures for a second impeachment trial for Trump but has indicated that the Senate likely would not bring any impeachment articles to the floor until Jan. 19, the day before Biden’s inauguration.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who will soon be the majority leader, is exploring calling the Senate back before then.