Photo: Blackburn for SenateWith Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives on Tuesday announcing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, responses from Tennessee’s representatives in Washington largely broke along party lines.

Senior Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, who is not seeking re-election next year, is perhaps the greatest mystery in the delegation. Democrats and Trump-skeptical moderates have held out hope that Alexander would take after his mentor Howard Baker — a onetime Richard Nixon ally who famously asked what the president knew and when during the Watergate hearings.

In October, Alexander said impeachment was a “mistake” that would “divide the country” while acknowledging that the underlying behavior was “inappropriate.” Democrats’ impeachment articles charge Trump with both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. At a news conference Tuesday morning, Democrats accused the president of prioritizing his political interests over U.S. foreign policy in his pressuring of Ukrainian leadership to investigate corruption there, including as it relates to the son of presidential contender Joe Biden.

The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the articles of impeachment later this week, and if approved by the House, the Senate would hold a removal trial.



U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) was another impeachment latecomer among the Tennessee delegation. After saying in August that “declaring impeachment really wouldn’t add anything” and would in fact play into Trump’s hands, Cooper in September backed impeachment as part of a wave of Democrats supporting the inquiry.

Cooper said Tuesday that he would vote for the articles.

"Once again, the President has intentionally harmed America, this time by disregarding the law and interfering with U.S. aid to fight our enemy – Russia – against tanks that are invading Ukraine, already causing 13,000 casualties," he said. "When caught, the President obstructed justice by ordering others to hide the truth."



Other Tennesseans in Washington were more predictable.

Cooper’s lone fellow Democrat in the delegation, Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis, was among the earliest supporters of impeachment, filing articles against Trump back in 2017.

"I think everybody feels that he's definitely abused his power, betrayed his oath and corrupted our election process," Cohen said Tuesday.



Some of Trump’s biggest backers also hail from Tennessee. Rep. Mark Green of Clarksville and Sen. Marsha Blackburn have been among the most outspoken impeachment critics.

Blackburn fired off a series of tweets Tuesday morning, each using the word “obsession” to describe Democratic efforts.

“The Democrats’ fast and furious obsession to impeach the president jeopardizes our institutions,” she said. “They are furious [Trump] won in 2016, and will stop at nothing to get even.” She did not follow the lead of Alexander, who has said he will not comment further on impeachment because “the Senate would in effect be the jury.”

What we are seeing is the Democrats abusing the constitution to further their obsession to remove a duly elected @POTUS. Their 3 year coordinated effort to remove @realDonaldTrump is eroding our checks and balances. — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) December 10, 2019

Green called the proceedings a “sham theater” and said the newly released articles “show impeachment has no substance other than the Dems’ loathing of the people and fear of” Trump.

After all the accusations @SpeakerPelosi & @RepAdamSchiff have made, after all the sham theater & rigged proceedings, these articles show impeachment has no substance other than the Dems' loathing of the people & fear of @realDonaldTrump. THIS is the tyranny our Founders feared. — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) December 10, 2019

Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais of South Pittsburg, another Trump ally, took to Twitter to say that Democrats “turned this entire process into a joke,” including by limiting who could testify.



