Friday, Dec. 20, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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In announcing she would vote to impeach President Donald Trump and then following through on it, Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., made a statement about her priorities, her principles and her integrity.
By refusing to bow to intimidation by Republicans and instead sticking to the duties of her office — a primary one of which is to provide a check and balance on the executive branch — Lee performed commendably.
Lee represents Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, which narrowly voted for Trump in 2016. Although voters swung in Lee’s favor in 2018, electing her over Danny Tarkanian by a comfortable margin, the district remains purple enough that Lee faced significant pressure from Republicans not to support the impeachment.
A conservative advocacy organization, the American Action Network, dumped a half-million dollars into mudslinging ads accusing her of sloughing off significant issues in favor of focusing on impeachment, and trying to overturn the results of the 2016 election.
In both cases, the ads were blatantly untrue. Lee has worked diligently for her district, particularly on legislation involving education, military and veterans issues, and governmental operations. According to one tracking site, she missed only three of the 682 roll call votes taken thus far during her term.
And as for this lunacy about Democrats trying to hijack the 2016 vote from the electorate, let’s remember that they’re not trying to kick out Mike Pence, so the Republican Party will control the presidency no matter what until January 2021.
But none of that stopped national and state Republicans from trying to gin up anger among Lee’s constituency.
Even before she announced her support of impeachment — saying instead that she was reserving judgment until the articles of impeachment were drafted — she was vilified by Trump supporters.
“Susie Lee’s constituents are fed up with House Democrats after this hoax, and no matter what reticence she has for impeachment now, voters won’t forget Lee has done absolutely nothing to stop this waste of time and tax dollars,” said Trump Victory spokesman Keith Schipper in a media statement.
Lee followed through on her plans anyway, and came to the correct conclusion that Trump committed impeachable offenses in pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden.
“The facts are clear: the president abused the power of his office and blatantly obstructed Congress,” Lee said.
Predictably, that announcement drew more howls from Republicans.
“Nevadans are ready to make @RepSusieLee a one-term Congresswoman if she goes through with voting for this impeachment sham,” the state Republican Party tweeted.
Blah, blah, blah. The truth is, Republicans were going to go after Lee full-tilt no matter where she landed on impeachment. Even if she had sold out her principles and defended Trump, the GOP would have attacked her for voting against the president and his extremist party on any number of other issues.
In this dystopian time of Trump, Republicans are quick to tear even at each other’s throats over any indication of lack of support for their Dear Leader. Just ask Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei, a Republican who got booted from Trump’s Nevada campaign team after not being quick enough to denounce the impeachment effort.
So Lee did the right thing by adhering to her oath of office instead of chasing political support from a party that wasn’t going to give it to her anyway.
Meanwhile, her show of principle should strengthen her support among the moderates who helped elect her — including Republicans who recognize Trump as the threat he is. For Lee, acting responsibly happened to also be the politically prudent thing to do.
