Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) is warning Republicans not to tee up a House vote later this year that would “expunge” the two impeachments from President Donald Trump’s first term.Bacon, a retiring centrist who has occasionally bucked congressional leadership, told the Washington Examiner that plans for the expungement votes would not be “well received” and that Republicans were better off pursuing a “noble” agenda centered on defense spending and reforms to legal immigration and Social Security.“Not a wise idea,” he said. “There’s no time for vanity projects.” Bacon added that he would “very likely” oppose such a vote on the House floor.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has spoken with Trump and some of his allies in the legal world about how to erase the impeachments. A vote is not imminent but could take place sometime after the midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending a tenuous House majority.
There is no mechanism in the Constitution to reverse an impeachment, and some critics have called the idea “absurd.” But Republicans for years have proposed legislation to void them symbolically, and the push gained traction in April, after the Trump administration declassified documents that Republicans say undermine the credibility of the trials.
