Freshman Republican Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer said he is “strongly considering” House Democrats’ efforts to impeach President Donald Trump.
Appearing Monday evening on CNN’s “Out Front,” Meijer told anchor Erin Burnett that Trump “is no longer qualified to hold that office.
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“Erin, I had a break,” Meijer said. “On Wednesday at around 4:17 p.m., after we’d fled the House chambers, after we knew that at least one person had died, when we were in a secure location, we didn’t know whether any of our colleagues were injured or killed, and the one person who could tamp down the rhetoric, the one person who could have put an end to that violence, the president, he put out that video that said, ‘We love you, you’re special, come home.’ No condemnation, no urge to bring things back. To me, that was an abject failure of leadership and something just broke then.”
Meijer told Burnett that while some colleagues have expressed concerned about the process, the impact, timing, and public reaction, none have argued against “the merits.”
“To me, this is not the timing that is ideal,” Meijer, an Iraq War veteran who replaced former Independent Rep. Justin Amash, explained. “I would prefer that we have a more fulsome investigation into what happened. Most of what I know about January 6 came either from personal experience or from Twitter. But at the end of the day, I think it is obvious that the president is no longer qualified to hold that office.”
“I will wait to see the additional evidence presented, but again this is something we’re strongly considering,” he continued.
The GOP congressman expressed concern about his own security, saying some who voted to certify the election have “already experienced death threats.”
“Our expectation is that folks will try to kill us,” he said. “To me, the important thing is not to let that that intimidate you because loyalty to the Constitution should supercede everything else.” (RELATED: ‘This Is So Ill-Advised’: Joe Manchin Pans Impeachment, Says The Votes Just Aren’t There)
While it would be technically impossible to impeach and convict Trump before the end of his term, some argue that such a conviction would bar him from running again and be a way of punishing the president for what they consider playing a role in inciting the Capitol riot last Wednesday.